so long as I live 8. The experience of Gods goodness and mercy to other in former or present ages the cloud of witnesses that have gone before us and found God gracious to them in their crying to him as in Psal 22.4 5. Our father 's trusted in thee they trusted in thee and thou didst deliver them They cryed unto thee and were delivered they trusted in thee and were not confounded To that puâ—â—se also the examples of Gods goodness to others are propounded by him to move men to taste and see by their trusting in and calling upon God how gracious God is Psal 34.4 5 6. I sought the Lord and he heard me and delivered me from all my fears they looked unto him and were inlightned and their faces were not ashamed This poor man cried and the Lord heard him c. Whatsoever things were written before-hand being written for our learning that we through patience and comfort of the Scriptures might have hope Rom. 15.4 God being one and so the same for us in through his Son as he was for and to any others before us and there is no respect of persons with him He is rich to all that call upon him Rom. 10.12.13 Such the incouragements which the holy Ghost gives for praying he that prays in the holy Ghost prays not in the incouragement of his own parts wisdom works or the like but in such incouragements as these above-mentioned as to such purpose that fore-quoted from Dan. 9.18 is pertinent We doe not present our Supplications before for our righteousness but for thy great mercies So that in Psal 5.7 and 143.1 2. 4. To pray in the holy Ghost is to pray in the operation of the holy Ghost and so in such a frame and temper of Spirit as the holy Ghost being minded and yielded up to in his testimony frames the heart unto And so 1. Not in pride as the Pharisee despising his neighbour and lifâ—ing up himself in Gods presence 2. Nor in self-confidence and reliance on a mans own righteousness as he also did Luk. 18.10 11. 3. Nor in wrath and anger as the Disciples that would have called for fire from Heaven upon the Samaritanâ— that would not receive Christ pretending Elias for a warrant to them therein Luk. 9 54. for that was not in the holy Spirit of Christ for all that pretence for our Saviour tellâ— them They knew not what manner of Spirit they were of ver 55. 4. Nor in vain-glory as the Pharisees that prayed to be seen of men that they might have glory of them Matth 6.5 6. 5. Nor in ambition seeking great things to themselves and to be lifted up above their Brethren as the two Sons of Zebedee and their Mother did not knowing what they asked when they requested that they might sit the one at Christs right hand and the other at his left in his Kingdom Matth. 20 20 21 22. 6. Nor in strife and contention as those in Isa 58 2 3. who fasted and prayed for strife and debate ver 4. 7. Nor to establish to themselves a righteousness in their praying and so not submitting to the righteousness of God in Christ as the Jews that had a zeal of God and instantly served God day and night hoping by their works of that nature to attain the righteousness of the Law Act. 26 7. with Rom. 9.30 31. and 10.2 3. 8. Nor in Covetousness as they that howled upon their beds for corn and wine Hos 7.14 9. Nor in a doubtful distrustful frame of Spirit that is not fixed in Gods goodness and perswaded of his truth for such a man is like the wave of the Sea tossed to and fro double-minded and inconstant in all his ways and let not such an one think to receive any thing at Gods hands Jam. 1.6 7. 1 Tim. 2.8 10. Nor in an impatient unsubmmitted frame of Spirit to Gods Government frowardly hasting out of affliction such as Jonah was in when he having prophesied the destruction of Niniveh and God seeing their repentance spared it he was exceedingly displeased and very angry and prayed God to take away his life from him Jonas 4.1 2 3. 11. Nor in a flat cold formal temper of Spirit as they that draw nigh to God with their mouth and honor him with the lips but the heart is far away Isa 29 17. or the like but 1. In a believing frame of heart minding and giving credit to Gods word and testimony the Gospel of Christ and from the belief of that calling upon God and in that sense prayer in the Holy Ghost is the prayer of Faith Jam. 5.15 and prayer proceeding out of the belief of Gods sayings believing and not doubting about them as Jam. 1.6 But let him ask in faith nothing doubting speaking to God because they believe his word as in Psal 116.10 I believed therefore have I spoken which may have reference to speaking by prayer aswel as to speaking by preaching or confession thus David from a belief of Gods word to him by Nathan found it in his heart to pray unto him that prayer in 2 Sam. 7.18 27. for the holy Ghost is a Spirit of Faith as 2 Cor. 4.13 and therefore breaths faith into the heart where he hath the rule and makes it breath in faith yea in a full assurance of faith as believing verily the truth of God concerning Christ yea and Gods hearing and granting its petitions that he helps the Soul to breath forth Heb. 10.22 Mark 11.24 1 John 5. â—4 15. and a cleaving adhering frame of Spirit cleaving to and trusting in God for his hearing and helping it according to his will and the Souls needs as resolved and fixed to depend upon trust in and wait for God as Mic. 7.7 I will look to the Lord I will wait for the God of my salvation my God will hear me as Jacob of old wrestling with God and resolved not to leave him till he had blessed him Gen. 32.26 So our Fathers trusted in thee they trusted in thee and were delivered they cried to thee and were delivered they trusted in thee and were not confounded Psal 22.4 5. such a frame of Spirit the holy Ghost leads to pray in a believing trusting frame And 2. With a fervent desire and frame of heart the Holy Ghost is compared to fire He sat on the Apostles like cloven tongues of fire Thence Quench not the Spirit and therefore when men pray in it it puts heat and life into them an earnest desire after those things which it directs absolutely to seek of God Thence it is said The effectual or operative fervent prayer of a righteous man availeth much Jam. 5.16 They that onely say over prayers or pray luke-warmly coldly and formally pray not in the Holy Ghost though this fervour of Spirit in prayer stands not in the loud speaking and straining the voice or in much repetitions but in the earnestness of the Souls desires and ardencie of affection to the
deserts but as the fruit of the mercy of Jesus Christ in what he hath done for them in his death and in what he further doth to and for them in his life pitying pleading for and succouring them all along as the Captain of their salvation a merciful and faithful Priest bearing them in his bosom making reconciliation for their sins and sending them relief and comfort in their temptations till having led them through and fed them in the wilderness the state of exercise and living by faith here he bring them safely in the taking them hence as to their spirits and in the Resurrection of the just as to their bodies reunited with their spirits to the enjoyment of this eternal life and happiness which is so great and so glorious a condition and enjoyment as passes and exceeds all expressions and conception For no man knows nor can enter into the heart to conceive the things that God hath prepared for them that love him onely they are in some measure made understandable by the Revelation of the Holy Spirit 1 Cor. 2 9 10 11 12. Vse Now both the love of God and the abiding in it and this which is the great issue and advantage of it being all the fruit and profit of the most holy faith built upon and abidden in It doth exceedingly commend that most holy faith to us even the Son of God that loved us and gave himself for us as he is in the Gospel preached and declared to us And therefore it may serve to move and provoke all persons to love and imbrace and close with it repenting of their neglects and slightings of it and of their running in their hearts and ways after vain and empty words and things to believe and take heed unto the Gospel and Christ crucified as therein displayed that so they may therein discern and be found in the love of God and be made heirs and enjoyers of this unfathomable endless happiness eternal life Ho every one that thirsteth come to these waters of the knowledge and doctrine of Christ and he that hath no money let him come and buy wine and milk without money and without price Why do you lay out your money for that that is not bread and labour for that that will not satisfie you when in enclining the ear and coming hither to the most holy faith and so to Jesus Christ you may eat that which is good and let your souls delight themselves in fatness Isa 55.1 2. The Spirit and the Bride say Come and let every one that heareth say Come and let him that is a thirst Come and whosoever will let him take of the waters of life freely Rev. 22.17 even of the words of Christ whose words are the words of eternal life John 6.68 2. It shews the marvellous faultiness and wretched wickedness as of those that neglect so great a salvation such a most holy faith such a precious jewel and pearl of great price as the Gospel is such a feast as therein is declared and set before us to run after their Farms and Merchandize So much more of those that having embraced the Gospel and Christ as therein declared and having come to him and tasted of him and of his sweetness and graciousness do afterward turn away and fall off from him to some other way or doctrine or to some other object for delight stay or satisfaction crucifying him to themselves and making him and the grace in him of none effect They do most foolishly and madly for themselves putting away from them both the love and favour of God and that which is the product of it everlasting life and all that mercy and pity of Christ that leadeth thereunto and is necessary and was ready to be extended to them for their attainment thereof Oh foolish people and unwise that do not onely so badly requite God for all his love and mercy in Christ and grace extended to them by him but also reward evil to their own souls losing them for very vanities and trifles depriving them of such infinite mercy and happiness and plunging them into everlasting wo and miseries Who can express their folly and wretchedness to sell everlasting life and that after some good progress towards it for a mess of pottage It was a great folly in Esau so to â—ell his birth-right and in the Israelites when they were well on their way toward Canaan and in a great likelihood nay certainty of enjoying it in following Gods conduct yet then for a little meat to satisfie their lusts for leeks and cucumers c. for a little pleasure with the Moabitish daughters when arrived at the borders of it to forfeit their inheritance in and perish in the wilderness But no folly and madness like this of withdrawing from God and Christ to perdition after the tastes of his goodness and experience in some measure of the the powers of the world to come as Heb. 6.4 5 6. O therefore that we may receive admonition while it is yet called to day and avoid or break off from such practises as tend to such a loss and utter undoing for He that transgresses and abides not in the doctrine of Christ the most holy faith hath not God and he that hath not the Son hath not life 2 Jo. 9 11. Jo 5.12 3. It shews the infinite happiness of those that be and abide in Christ in the faith and obedience of Christ edifying themselves and one another on him praying in the Holy Ghost and so doe keep themselves in the love of God and wait for the mercy of our Lord Jesus Christ unto eternal life they have the love and favour of God now as a Sun and Shield unto them and they shall have in the world to come everlasting life they are in a happy and blessed state and condition whatever tryals and afflictions doe or may befal them Blessed are the people that are in such a case yea blessed and happy is he whose God is the Lord Psalm 33.12 and 144. last And therefore also 4. It may incourage and provoke all that do believe in Christ and are upon that precious and most excellent foundation to abide in him and beware of all those things that may indanger their falling and departure therefrom Looking diligently least they or any of them fail of the Grace of God and least any root of bitterness spring up and thereby many be defiled least there be any fornicator or prophane person as Esau Heb. 12.15 16 17. least there be found an evil heart of unbelief in departing from the living God least any false Prophet or Antichrist deceive any of us or the love of this world or of the things of it stealing in upon us withdraw us from Christ and from the love of the Father which cannot consist with it and so we be choked and all the Grace of God bestowed upon us prove ineffectual to us But on the contrary Exhort we one another while it is called to day least any be hardened through the deceitfulness of sin Considering one another to provoke to love and to good works so running that we may obtain Laying hold on eternal life and suffering no man or corruption or evil spirit to deceive us deprive us thereof But let that which we heard from the 〈…〉 in us and then we shall 〈…〉 â—â— the Father and in the Son and not fail of the promise of eternal life seeing he is faithful that hath promised and will perform it and perfect what concerns us Let us not be slothful then but followers of them that through faith and patience have inherited the promises Let us hold fast the profession of our faith without wavering and not cast away our confidence in God by Jesus Christ which hath so great a recompence of reward only remember we have need of patience that we may bear and suffer injuries and temptations and not faint but yet hope in the Lord and quietly wait for his Salvation waiting for the mercy of our Lord Iesus Christ unto eternal life that so when we have done the will of God we may receive the promise which yet for a little while is deferred but will not fail to be performed to those that keep Gods waâ— â—nd therein wait for it He that shall come wâ—ll come and will not tarry Now the good Lord the God of peace who brought again from the dead our Lord Iesus that Great Shepheard of the Sheep through the blood of the everlasting Covenant make us perfect with him in every good work to doe his will working in â—s that which is well-pleasing in his sight 〈…〉 Iesus Christ To whom be Glory for ever and ever Amen Amen March 26. 1664. FINIS
defection from God and Christ either to avoid the difficulties and troubles in and to the flesh that he endeavours to fill them with and which God for the tryal of their faith in him and love and obedience to him exercises him with or permits and orders to come upon him or else to gain the sweetness and profit of other carnal or worldly injoyments set before him therefore that he take and make use of all those weapons of defence those Arguments of the Gospel and observe those wayes and rules appointed him therein with watchfulness thereunto and against the wiles and workings of the Adversary with which God hath furnished him and unto which he hath directed him in Jesus Christ taking heed of listening to and being moved by any of those subtle Arguments brought by the Adversary to him to disswade him from his stedfastness in the faith and constancy of his profession whether from the dangers threatened him should he hold fast his purpose and way or the insufficiency either in himself or in God and Christ to defend him from them or from the many sweet and pleasant injoyments to the flesh or spirit in some other wayes to be obtained by him but minding what answers thereto and there against the Word and Testimony of God doth afford him diligently to take heed to them and oppose them there against and so to take heed of walking in any such ways as in which the Adversary may find him out of Gods protection and naked and open to his temptations To this purpose are those many counsels to Watch and stand fast quit themselves like men and be strong 1 Cor. 16.13 To take heed to themselves and put on the whole Armour of God and therein to resist Satan and yet still to stand to walk circumspectly not as fools but as wise c. Unto which things God having in his favour abundandantly furnished them expects and requires their care and diligence and exercise of their powers and faculties for their own defence and that because 1. God hath not called us to Christ to be idle and do nothing but to be active and obedient he hath called us not to glory only so as Christ should without us necessitate us to it but also to vertue that we might in the strength of Christ given us travel in his wayes toward the injoyment of it and with his spiritual Weapons fight manfully and valiantly against all those Adversaries that would spoil us or cheat us of it We are Gods workmanship created in Christ Jesus to good works fore-ordained by him that we might walk in them and as trees of righteousness that we might bear and bring forth the fruits of righteousness unto his glory and be a peculiar people for him zealous of good works And therefore he expecteth from us and requireth of us in the strength vertue and power that he gives us to walk and war to do good bring forth fruits abound in good works c. And if being so furnished by him with his Grace as that we may do and abound in these things we do fail his expectation and desire sit still instead of marching on toward the heavenly Canaan or draw back again towards Egypt fling down our Weapons or like Ephraim being harnessed turn our backs upon our enemies in the day of battel and so yield up our selves to the power of their temptations not exercising our selves to good works nor bringing forth good fruits but the contrary How can the most holy and pure Majesty that hates iniquity slothfulness and cowardliness approve or own us especially if through our sloth and cowardliness we yield our selves to his and our enemies and let them do what they will with us and so take part with them against him who hath done so much for us and put so great ingagements to him upon us For 2. He hath called us to glory also that we may be a glorious honourable people to him and he have glory by us that we might be for a name and for a praise to him by our vertuousness fruitfulness strength courage wisdom and well doing in the power of his Grace now he should be dishonoured and disparaged by us and we be an inglorious shameful people our selves if being so fortified and furnished for resistance against our enemies we should yet do nothing against them but be alwayes meerly passives as those that are alwayes Babes and Children that have received from Christ nothing of manhood and courage in us that must have all done meerly for us without us and we do nothing in and by Christ in which he may have glory by us Herein is God glorified that we bring forth much fruit and so that we by the help of his right hand do valiantly quitting our selves like men and being strong behaving our selves wisely and not doing as fools to be frighted from our station by every or any bugbear or allured to part with our safety or happiness for the desire after some gew-gaw or trifle that looks somewhat bravely therefore having so every way furnished us he expects something therein from us and puts something in the vertue thereof upon us Working in us of good pleasure to will and to do He wills us to work out our own salvation with fear and trembling and to do all things without murmuring or disputing that we might be blameless and harmless the Sons of God without rebuke and blame in a crooked generation Phil. 2.12 13 14 15 16. That the courage wisdom power vertues of God appearing in us no Momus or Carper might find any just ground of reviling us as being saved of God but wholly destitute of the vertues of God and unserviceable to God as having nothing but a righteousness imputed to us without any power or life of God working in us or wrought forth by us Yea and 3 Otherwise the gifts and furniture of God his spiritual weapons provided for us and brought to our hands should be in vain if he should so do all for us as to leave us wholly idle and put nothing upon us in his strength and power and by his Weapons of righteousness to be done by us Sure God gives the manifestations of his Spirit to his people to profit with 1 Cor. 12.7 He gives us not his Armour Shield and Sword to lye and rust by us but to be put on and used by us yea he gives us life and bread to nourish our life and strength with our life and wisdom with our strength to the end that we might use them in his way work and service for our own defence and the defence of his Truth against his its and our enemies He gives us not talents to hury up in the earth but to trade with for his honour and advantage He lights not a candle to put it under a bed of sloth or hide it under a bushel by some scanty limiting it to some few but to be set upon a Candlestick that it may
a sense the Doctrine or faith of him as setting him forth to and for men is most holy in all these respects more holy than any other vessel utensil or instrument made use of by God or at his appointment under the Law and legal dispensation though there were divers and some more holy than others yet the Gospel is above them all The most choise medium of God's power both spotless and pure in it self as being his word and most chosen and set apart to be his arm for salvation to all that believe and therefore fuller of divine efficacie for making holy and more choisely cared for and defended of God being the Everlasting Gospel and the neglects and contempt of it most severely punished Matth. 10.15 Some things under the Law conferred an holiness unto other things that touched them or that they were applied to as the Altar or the holy Oyntment c. but nothing 〈◊〉 so confer holiness as the Gospel doth them that attend to it and receive it It s the Vnction the holy Oyntment the Name of Christ therein held forth is as an Oyntment poured out Cant. 1.3 which sanctifies consecrates and makes holy to God all that receive it as Act. 26.18 Sanctified by the faith that is in me and 1 Cor. 6.11 Ye are sanctified in the Name of the Lord Jesus and by the Spirit of our God The Law was holy and the Commandment holy and just and good but not able to sanctifie and make the Conscience perfect because of the flesh that it could nor subdue but the Gospel faith is so holy and set apart for Gods use and service as the medium for his sanctifying and saving men that his presence and Spirit even the Holy Spirit is in or with it and his influence or operation ministred by it to the sanctifyng and devoting the hearts and Spirits of all that receive it unto God Sanctifie them through thy truth thy word is the truth John 17.17 Yea and as it is now plainly and fully opened and preached since the coming of Christ it is more full of Spirit and divine power for sanctifying and making holy and therefore also requires and calls for more holiness in the hearers and professors of it than any former dispensations For now in these last ages God who in former times spake to the Fathers by the Prophets and to them by Angels Dreams and Visions hath spoken his mind most fully to us by his onely begotten Son whom he appointed heir of all things and by whom he also made the Worlds Heb. 1.1 2. and therefore now requires more strict obedience and more exact conformity to his minde and more severely punishes the neglectors and abusers of his Gospel and the Grace thereof than he did in former times exact or expect from men under the Mosaical dispensation and then he punished the neglectors and abusers thereof or of any holy things then in use Heb. 2.1 2 3. and 10.26 29. and 12.18 19 24 25. If the word spoken by Angels was stedfast and every transgression there against â— received a just recompence of reward how shall we escape if we neglect so great salvation which at first began to be spoken by the Lord and afterward was confirmed to us by them that heard him So the Faith of the Saints is the most holy faith and so called here as also because of 2. It s most absolute compleatness and perfection It is so holy that nothing can be added to it to make it more holy perfect pure or apt and fit for the purpose to which it is ordained as to be the foundation of Faith hope love obedience c. and the mean or medium for effecting them and so of making holy to God those that receive it Christ is the most full and compleat foundation of Gods Building who is so perfected through sufferings as to become the Author of eternal Salvation to all them that obey him Heb. 5.9 Yea so as all the fulness of the Godhead dwells in him bodily and in him we are compleat who is the Head of all Principallity and power Col. 2.9 10. made unto us of God wisdome righteousness holiness and redemption 1 Cor. 1.30 a most sure foundation and precious corner stone so as that he that believes on him shall not be confounded or make haste from him for any thing that threatens to shake or ruine him The Soul that believes in him findes so much holiness and preciousness in him Isa 28.16 1 Pet. 2.6 7. there can nothing be added to the excellencie of his person being the onely begotten Son of God nor to the vertue and preciousness of this Sacrifice having offered up himself a spotless Sacrifice through the eternal Spirit by which he hath at once perfected or perfectly prepared all things for the sanctified for ever Heb. 9.14 Heb. 10.14 Nor to the dignity and perfection of his Priesthood being consecrated of God by the word of his Oath an High-Priest for ever after the Order of Melchisedech even according to the power of an endless life Heb. 7. nor to the fulness of his Prophesie or prophetical Power and Office being acquainted with the whole minde of God and filled with the fulness of the Holy Spirit to declare it and to make the declaration of it powerful and effectual and all the treasures of wisdome and knowledge being hid or treasured up in him and his Mystery Col. 2.3 4. Isa 42.1 2 3 4. and 61.1 2 3. nor to his Power and Authority as Lord and King the fulness of Gods Power and Authority being given to him even all power in Heaven and Earth a Name above every Name that at his Name every knee should â—ow both of things in Heaven and things in Earth and things under Earth c. Angels and Principallities and Powers are made subject to him Philip. 2.10 11. 1 Pet. 3.21 And so the Doctrine of faith that sets him forth is the most holy Faith to signifie that its the most compleat pure and perfect Doctrine nothing to be added to it nor taken from it The Doctrine of the Law that was very good holy and useful in its kind but it was a ministration of Death and in respect of the shadowness and typicalness of it it was to pass away as in 2 Cor. 3. is shewed and so the Testimony or Covenant made therein Heb. 8.8 9 13. but this ministration of the Gospel as it came forth first in Paradise so it is to continue abide to the end it is the everlasting Gospel that shall not pass till all be fulfilled accomplished indeed before the coming of Christ in the flesh it was not fully revealed as now it is in these last days by Jesus Christ and his Apostles and therefore till then the Vision was not sealed Dan. 9.24 nor the Law and testimony fully bound up Isa 8.16 but now it is fully revealed so as no more is to be added till the personal appearance of the Lord
and Glory all those that submit to and serve him and everlastingly destroying all their enemies so as they never be able more to oppose or trouble theâ— A merciful High-Priest that can be touched with the feeling of our infirmities and temptations while yet we are under the vexations of Enemies and one that will most faithfully see to us and accomplish all things for and about us that may conduce to our preservation and safety here while under tryals and to our eternal happiness when fully freed from them The considering and minding him and the testimony of God concerning him as also what it it says and testifies of us ouâ— vileness sinfulness helplesness and misery in our-selves and of our welfare and happiness in him as founded in him and what it testifies of the world of sin of righteousness life death c. with all the Heavenly instructions reproofs and consolations of it is one yea the chief way of edifying our selves on our most holy faith while we therein and therethrough draw vertue from Christ as the poor woman by touching his garments to the nourishing and strengthning our Soules to trust in him love him cleave to him and obey him and so to oppose and stand against the assaults of Sathan evils of the world lusts of the flesh or whatsoever might endeavour to allure or affright us from him yea and derive all Heavenly Grace and vertue from him to the inlarging our Souls towards him and fitting them for and filling them with every good thing Therefore the Holy Ghost in the Scripture is so frequent in commending to us and provoking us to the study mindfulness and meditation of the Law and Doctrine of the Lord the Gospel of our salvaâ—â—n pronouncing that man happy and blessed that delights himself therein and gives up himself thereto As also the minding others of it and of the instructions reproofs and consolations of it is the way to edifie them also both by removing the rubbish that hinders their close cleaving to Christ the foundation and more firmly cementing them to and uniting them with Christ through his love and goodness discovered to them and put to their mindes and more firmely joyning them through the same love one to another and furthering their hope in and conformity to God and Christ in which they are edified and built up for him And as furtherance also hereto a further means and way is 2. A diligent and faithful exercise of their spiritual gifts for the helpfulness of each other for the manifestation of the Spirit some useful gift or other in which the Holy Spirit manifests his presence and influence and whereby he fits each member of Christ for the good of the whole Body is given to every one namely of the Members of Christ to profit with 1 Cor. 12.7 that is to do good too and edifie the Church or body of Christ with as to one is given by the Spirit a word of wisdome for directing and counselling what is best in doubtful matters to another a word of knowledge to inform mens minds of the things of God and nature of his Creatures works Providences c. To another faith a gift of believing and trusting in God more eminently or of incouraging to faith and confidence or also of faithfulness in keeping secret things committed to them not divulging the temptations failings and miscarriages of others imparted to them To another the gifts of healings either of the inward wounds and distempers of the Spirit or of bodily diseases by a miraculous way To another the working of Miracles or operations and efficacies of powers or powerful things such as the inflicting diseases deaths or such sad punishments upon men as when the Apostle Peter inflicted death upon Ananias and Saphirah at his word Act. 5 and Paul blindness on Barâ—Jesus the Sorcerer in Act. 13.10 11. as also the casting out Devils or the like To another prophecie either the fore-telling things to come as Agabus did Acts 11.28 or the opening and unfolding Doctrine and speaking out of the Scriptures to exhortation edification and comfort 1 Cor. 14.3 To another the discerning of Spirits the discerning the Doctrines of men though never so craftily counterfaiting the truth or discerning mens tempers and dispositions whereby they are fit to admonish and warn their Brethren of what may harm them or of persons not safe for them to trust To another diversity of Tongues To another a gift of Interpreting Languages Divers gifts from one and the same spirit of Christ distributing to every one according as he pleases but all given for the helpfulness and profit of the Church and therefore also to be to that purpose exercised as the Apostles also instruct and teach as in 1 Pet. 4.10 every one as he hath received the gift so let him minister one towards another as good stewards of the manifold or various Graces of God So in Rom. 12.6 7. Having gifts differing according to the Grace that is given unto us whether prophesie let us prophesie according to the proportion of saith or ministry let us wait on our ministry as Joshuah on his ministring to Moses Exod. 24.13 and John to Paul and Barnabas Act. 13.5 or he that teacheth on teaching or he that exhorteth on exhortation c. surely in such exercising their spiritual gifts and imploying and improving their Talents they may be useful and helpful for edifying themselves and one another for while they are faithful in doing good with what they have received and are betrusted with God gives his blessing with them and increases them themselves the liberal Soul here shall be made fat and he that watereth shall be watered also himself and he shall profit and edifie others also as the Apostle exhorting Timothy to take heed to himself and his ministry and to continue in them tells him so should be save himself and them that heard him adde 3. A walking in Charity for knowledge without that puffs up but Charity edifies 1 Cor 8.2 3. that's the most profitable way the Grace or vertue that will lead us to be most useful and edifying to others for that will lead us to be ready at all times to exercise our gifts and improve our Talents for the good of others and to mind their concernments and what may further their happiness and not to look on our own things onely Charity suffers long from others before it will be tired out or suffer him in whom it is to turn away from seeking their good and is kind in the mean time free to do good to others while it suffers great indignities and abuses long from them It envies not others good nor the imparting our gifts to others for their good Doth not vaunt it self nor is puffed up to the grieving and discouraging the neighbour or dispising his meaner condition and worth Doth not behave it self unseemly to offend and stumble the weak Brother and to turn him out from God Seeketh not her own but
this life support and help under or freedom and deliverance from the troubles of it and from the plots and malice of wicked men in the world against us as be necessary for us for our subsistence while here continued or for our serving and glorifying God and usefulness amongst men as Prov. 30.8 Feed me with food convenient for me Matth. 6.11 Give us this day our dayly bread O deliver me not into the will of mine enemies Psal 27.14 Deliver me O Lord from the evil man and preserve me from the wicked man which imagine michief in their hearts c. Psal 140.1 2. Pray that your flight be not in the winter nor on the Sabbath-day Matth 24.20 and the like for others as for our selves 2 Thess 3.1 2. 5. In particular wants exercises and temptations for such things as the Holy Spirit knows to be most profitable for us and others and most agreeable with Gods will in which we know not usually what to pray for but the Holy Spirit that God gives to his servants and worshippers doth and that helps their infirmities and makes intercession for them with groans that cannot be uttered Rom. 8.26 and leads his people in such cases to pray according to Gods will as Abraham for Ishmaels life O that Ishmael might live before thee Gen. 17.18 20. Isaac for children Gen. 25.21 Elijah for the life of the widow of Sarephaths child be restored 1 King 17. and so Elisha for the Shunamite 2 King 4 and many the like obvious in the Scriptures In a word the Holy Ghost shews what things are agreeable to the will and holiness of God and conduces to the promoting his Glory and our own and others good and directs us to pray for them as they be wanting and blesseâ— God for them as granted to us 2. As to the manner of praying both 1. As to the way of approaching to God that it be not in our own righteousness name or goodness as if we deserved any mercy of him to our selves or were worthy upon the account of our righteousness to obtain any thing but in the name and upon the account of Christ and so through and by him his Sacrifice and Priestly intercession for us the new and living way to God Heb. 10.19 20. and so in Gods goodness mercy and righteousness through him So David praying to God goes not in his goodness but in Gods Psal 5.7 As for me I will come into thy house in the multitude of thy mercies c. and in Psal 25.6 According to thy mercy think thou upon me for thy goodness-sake O Lord and Daniel Chap. 9.17 18. For the Lords sake and we do not present our supplications before thee for our own righteousness but for thy great mercies So the Holy Spirit instructs and directs us to come unto God by Christ as in Heb. 7.25 and in his Name to make our prayers and petitions John 14.12 13 14. and 16.23 27. 2. As to the expressions not studying quaint and elegant words and expressions as if God delighted in them but to utter our needs and desires in such words and expressions as the Holy Spirit leading us to minde the greatness and goodness of God the declarations of his â—inde and and will our own vileness and meanness and wants helps us with as knowing it is the faith and fervencie of the heart and the rightness of the frame of Spirit in our prayers that sounds best in Gods eare A braken or contrite heart O God thou wilt not despise He that studies quaint words to please men prays rather to men for their applause than to God for his Grace and blessing and so it leads not to use vain repetitions as placing holiness goodnes or the acceptableness of our prayers in such so often reiterated expressions or as thinking to be heard for or in our much speaking Mat. 6 7. though the Holy Spirit lets us see sometime ground and need for praying longer and sometime shorter as our cases may be as Christ was in prayer all night sometime Luc. 6.12 before he chose his Apostles and yet sometime was very short as when he raised up Lazarus John 11.41.42 3. As to the earnestness in praying The Holy Spirit leads to be chiefly earnest for those things that are of greatest concernment more earnest for what tends to promote Gods Kingdom and righteousness and to his Glory than for things in which our libâ—rty ease health or the like are onely concerned and to be most indifferent for those things in which Gods Name Kingdom or Glory are least concerned â— As to the incouragements and motives to pray To pray in the Holy Ghost is to pray in the incouragements motives and motions which the Holy Spirit giveth And they be such as the Gospel and Doctrine of Christ presents unto us as 1. The gracious goodness of God testified towards us in Christ Jesus in whom he hath declared and manifested himself a lover of us as his Creatures as mankinde yea though sinners and while so in that he was pleased to appoint and send him even his onely begotten Son into the world for us that we might live through him even through him as made and become the propitiation for our sins as in 1 John 4.9 10. Having not spared his Son but delivered him up to the Death for us all the Holy Spirit incourages us thereupon to hope and in that hope to expect that he will also with him freely give us all things and in such incouragement and upon such ground moves us to ask of him what is needful and good for us Rom. 8.26 27 28. 2. The compleatness of Christ as our Mediator and High Priest with God for obtaining Grace and mercy of him for us and to that purpose making intercession and of his Authority with God to dispense and hand unto us as well as of wisdom to discern and see whatever may be good and needful for us Heb. 4.14 Having such a great High Priest Jesus the Son of God passed into the Heavens for us let us go boldly to the Throne of Grace So Heb. 10.19 20 21 22 Seeing we have boldness or liberty to the Holy of Holies by the blood of Jesus that is by such a compleat full and perfect Sacrifice as that he hath offered for us such as infinitely goeth beyond all the Sacrifices under the Law as the foregoing part of that Chapter had largely shewed such as in which is perfection for the sanctified for ever ver 14. plenteousnes of Redemption forgivenes of sins and a powerful voice to speak for our acceptance Col. 1.14 Heb. 12.24 by a new and living way which he hath consecrated for us through the vail his flesh and having an High Priest over the House of God such a one namely as Christ is who is holy harmless undefiled separated from sinners made higher than the Heavens a Priest for ever after the order of Melchisedeck a King and Priest and that too the
and not those things that tend to the glory of Christ and furtherance of his Name praise and Kingdom in the world and in such an evil selfish peevish uncharitable proud passionate distemper of spirit as the wisdom or will of the flesh begets or produces in men and not in such a frame and efficacie as is of Gods spirit which kinde of praying is displeasing to God who being a Spirit will be worshipped by men in spirit and truth and cannot accept or like of that that is not of his holy spirit and therefore also is unprofitable to men and tends not to build them up in the most holy faith whence need for exhorting believers and for believers to accept the exhortation both to pray and to see that they doe it aright not in any spiritless formal way or in any carnal and unholy Spirit but in the holy Ghost 8. That this praying in the holy Ghost is a good means to edifie the believers in their most most holy Faith and so for keeping them in the love of God for therefore this clause is joyned with them and joyned with them in such a manner of speaking as clearly denotes and implies it to be a means to them For in saying Building up your selves on your most holy Faith praying in the Holy Ghost he shews that the building up themselves on their most holy faith would not goe well on if trusting to their own power and skill therein they should neglect Gods help or neglect to pray and call upon God for it in such a way as he might accept them and send them help Therefore they were to doe that with the former action as a means to it and then in coupling the counsel to both those and that absolutely by a Verb or word of command or counsel Keep your selves in the love of God and mentioning both of those by a Participle as having reference to some further end namely that expressed in that following counsel he implies that they be both of them means to that great end or that such a building themselves on their most holy Faith as is exercised with praying in the Holy Ghost will much conduce to or is the means to preserve and keep themselves in the love of God Which leads us to the next enquiry namely 4. How the praying in the Holy Ghost conduces to the keeping our selves in the love of God To which it is to be minded as was noted above that the love or peculiar favour of God and his blessing is fixed upon the foundation or most holy faith in the first place It firstly fastens upon and imbraces Christ his beloved delightful one who is the great subject of the Gospel Doctrine and for his sake it is upon or with that Doctrine also as it sets forth and contains his name and is the means to glorifie him to men and to draw in men to him so as his eye and heart is thereupon as a most holy thing to him the slighters of which he will slight and punish with more intolerable judgements than those upon Sodom and Gomorrah as in Matth. 10.15 and those that receive and embrace that are imbraced and beloved of him so as to be rewarded with life everlasting John 5.24 He that heareth my words which he gave to his Apostles and they preached in his name and believeth on him that sent me hath everlasting life c. and Mark 16.16 He that believeth and is baptized namely into Christ shall be saved c. Thence it follows that that which furthers mens being edified and built up on that most holy faith doth also further their being and abiding in that love and favour of God which he bears toward those that are thereupon for the sake thereof And so praying in the Holy Ghost conduces to the keeping men in the love of God as it is a means to keep them on their most holy Faith And a means thereto it is both 1. As there is no praying in the Holy Ghost but by and from the most holy Faith Jesus Christ and the Doctrineâ— of him taken heed unto and minded by men Praying in the H. Gh. then argues a being on the most holy Faith and exercises men to it even to the holding to and minding of it because the Holy Spirit is not otherwise to be met with to breath in us and frame our hearts to spiritual and right desires and prayers but on that most holy Faith for the Holy Spirit is onely that way ministred namely By the hearing of Faith and not by the works of the Law much less by any inventions and works in obedience to other Laws or in any lawless courses Gal 33.3 The Holy Spirit dwells and rests upon Christ and is sent forth in his name unto men Isa 42.1 6â— 1 11.12 John 14.26 and that to witness to Christ lead them to and unite them with him John 15.26 16.13 14. 1 Cor. 6. â—7 for he is so dwelling in Christ as not to be separated from him and therefore all that he dwells in must be one with Christ also for it is by vertue of Christ and in union with him that he that dwells and rests on Christ the head dwells in them as his members also And it is in the Name and Doctrine of Christ as Christ is therein named and set forth that the Holy Spirit breathes unto and in men therein and makes it a Ministration of Spirit or a means of conveying the light power presence and influence of the Spirit which is therefore no further abiding in men and leading and framing them than that Word and Doctrine of Christ in which he is ministred and Christ as held forth therein is received by and abides in men and they in them Whence that in 2 John 9. Whoso transgresseth and abideth not in the doctrine of Christ hath not God to wit by his Holy Spirit in and with them for so God dwells in Believers namely by his Spirit as in Ephes 2.21 Whoso abideth in the doctrine of Christ hath both the Father and the Son namely in and by the influence and presence of the Spirit of both in and with them as well as in other considerations for them So then he that prayeth in the Holy Ghost being on the most holy Faith and so in Christ in whom and for whose sake God so loveth and favoureth men as we have shewed must needs be in the love of God and the praying in the Holy Ghost a means to keep men in the love of God because it is a way to keep men in Christ and a fruit of their keeping in him 2. Again it must needs be a means to preserve Believers in the love of God as it is a means to obtain further grace from God for more building up themselves on their most holy Faith where the love of God runs and is certainly enjoyed for what men ask of God believing in Christ and in the name of Christ as the Holy
in Christ and that mercy of Christ that is needful to bring us thereunto and so that we be not slothful nor take up content and satisfaction in what 's already attained as if we had enough and needed no more Laodicea-like but with our Souls be desiring after God and with our very spirits longing for him till he satisfie our souls with his goodness as was Davids posture of waiting for God expressed Psal 130.5 6. I wait for the Lord yea my Soul doth wait and in his word doe I hope My Soul waiteth for the Lord more than they that watch for the morning I say more than they that watch for the morning a waiting in which is also a watching for what is waited for yea a most diligent and desirous watching such as that is of those that being benighted and bewildred for want of light do long for the morning light And indeed such a waiting for Gods mercy becomes those that are building up themselves on their most holy faith and praying in the holy Ghost for men may pray formally or put their life and Religion in saying over prayers and yet have their hearts dead and void of any living desires of Gods presence and favour but the praying in the Holy Ghost cannot stand without it as may appear in what we have said thereabout yea this waiting may have in it further 4. A waiting upon God in Christ as well as a waiting for him or for something from him a patient attending to him and following after him whithersoever he goes and to be ordered and directed by him in what ever he requires as Psal 123.1 2. Vnto thee lift I up my eyes O thou that dwellest in the Heavens Behold as the eyes of servants are upon the hands of their Masters and the eye of the maiden unto the hand of her Mistress namely to be at their appointment and see and mind which way they direct them to run as well as to minde what they will give them so our eyes wait or are upon the Lord our God till he have mercy upon us in such a sense as that phrase in Prov. 27.18 He that waiteth upon his Master shall be honoured He that attends upon him to know his pleasure and to doe him service and this may be included also in this waiting for his mercy and in that seeking is therein implied though the other things seem to be more properly and directly signified 2. Now the Object to be waited for is expressed to be the Mercy of our Lord Jesus Christ unto Eternal life Eternal life is the end but necessary thereto as the way to bring us to it is the Mercy of our Lord Jesus Christ Mercy But not any or every kind of mercy There are the tender mercies of the wicked that are cruel Prov. 12.10 and there is the mercy or kindness of men that are not wicked but the best of men are but servants to this Lord whose mercy is to be expected It is the mercy of the Lord whose mercy will reach to more profit than those of a servant but yet it s not the mercy of every Lord neither but of him who is the Lord of Lords and King of Kings the Lord Jesus Christ the anointed Saviour the only begotten Son of God whom he sent into the world for us made of a woman made under the Law that he might redeem us who were under the Law that we by the faith of him might receive the adoption of Sons who being anointed with the Holy Ghost and power went about doing good and obeyed his Father to the death the death of the Cross and therefore is again highly exalted and hath a Name an Authority and power given him far above every Name or power that at his Name every knee should bow both of things in Heaven and things in Earth c. and that every tongue should confess that he is Lord to the Glory of God the Father Philip 2.10 11. The Lord of all Act. 10 36. The Lord of men even of the dead and of the living by vertue of his Death Resurrection and living again Rom. 14.9 and the Lord of Angels for Angels and Principallities are made subject to him 1 Pet. 3.22 the Lord of Life and Glory Act. 3.15 1 Cor. 2.8 as having the Soveraign Power in and with his Father to quicken and give life to whom and as he pleases John 5.20 21 22. being upon the right hand of Majesty in the Highest filled with all the fulness of the Godhead bodily Col. 2.9 the fulness the immeasurable fulness of the Holy Ghost being resting and dwelling upon him and so anointing him and furnishing him with power and sufficiencie of wisdom understanding counsel strength c. for the managing the Government and Kingdom of God over men and over all Creatures so as in a way of saving mankinde from sin death devil and destruction being the Saviour of all men able willing and ready to save all of them upon submission to him yea and actually so saving them from manifold evils both within and without so that they are ingaged to and might submit to him but especially the Saviour of them that believe It is the mercy of this great Lord and our Saviour Jesus Christ who being one with the Father and glorified with the Fathers own self upon the account of his obedience to his Father and love to and sufferings for us men is often joyned with the Father in the Object of the Apostles prayers foâ— and so in the dispensations of Grace and Mercy unto men as may be seen in the Salutations of the Churches in their Epistles to them Grace be to you and peace from God our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ Rom. 1.7 1 Cor. 1.3 2 Cor. 1.2 Gal. 1.3 Ephes 1.2 Philip. 1.2 Coll. 1.2 1 Thes 1.1 2 Thes 1.2 Philem. 1.3 or Grace mercy and peace from God our Father and Jesus Christ our Lord 1 Tim. 1.2 or Christ Iesus our Lord 2 Tim. 1.2 or the Lord Iesus Christ our Saviour Tit. 1.4 and surely his mercy must needs be of exceeding great concernement unto us above all things for it is the mercy of God so as that where he hath and exerciseth mercy God also even the Father exercises mercy in and by him And where he shews not mercy neither doth God the Father shew mercy nor can the pity and mercy of men be they never so great or mighty or many advantage a man any thing in comparison hereof the Sovereign power of life and death yea of everlasting life or death being in and with him So that whom he saves and blesses they are and shall be saved and blessed and whom he destroys or rejects from his mercy they shall perish everlastingly for his judgment is true and righteous and takes place and stands fast for ever His Mercy therefore is worthy the waiting for and most earnestly to be sought after as without which there is no salvation or happiness
Believers of the Grace of God love God for his love believed by them so in 1 John 4.19 We love God because he first loved us First loved us namely in sending his Son into the world while we were sinners and ungodly for that 's it in which he not onely hath commended but still and always commendeth his love to us Rom. 5.8 not onely to be our Teacher but also to be the propitiation for our sins that we might live through him Vers 9 10 14. This love rightly perceived and heartily received turns the heart to love God 1. So as letting go or rejecting all other Gods or Objects of trust and worship for the sake of God and of our Lord Jesus Christ beloved also as the Son of God and our Saviour to chuse him for its God and to say of him He is my rock my fortress my God in him will I trust Psal 91.2 2. So as for the sake of Christ and God in him to count all things loss and dung where this love is indeed hearty and strong for there be degrees of loving God yea to forsake father mother lands life all things for the knowledge and enjoyment of him panting and longing after fellowship with him Phil. 3.7.8 9. Luke 14.26.33 Psal 42.1 2. 27.4 Yea 3. So as though with the loss of all things where this love is vehement to desire and endeavour the promoting of his glory yielding up its power and members thereto 1 Cor. 10.33 Phil. 1.20 Act. 20.24 4. So as it loves observes and keeps his words and sayings and doth his commands John 14.21 23. 1 John 5.3 5. So as it loves and waits for his salvation willingly tarrying for it Psal 40.19 6. Yea and so as it loves his name and his people delights and cleaves to them Isa 56.6 1 John 3.23 5.1 By which tryal may be made how we have received and believed the Grace of God whether in vain or not examining and proving our selves whether we be in the faith and Christ by his Spirit and its efficacies be in us or not 2 Cor. 13.5 that being the way by which the rightness and effectualness of our receit of the Grace of God or its ineffectualness may be discerned as these Scriptures signifie 1 John 1.6 7. 2.3 4 5.6 9 10 11 29. 3.7 8 10 14 19 20 21 c. that where it 's otherwise we might not question the reality of Gods love of compassion and well-willing to us but believing that give the more earnest heed to the things heard in the Gospel so as to receive them more heartily turn at his reproofs therein and yield up to the power therein working that we may be renewed thereby lest we be rejected of him Heb. 2.1 6.7 8. and where we find his Grace effectual in any measure we may be more encouraged to mind it still that we may both be preserved therein and be perfected thereby and this the rather because as is here implied too Note 2. Such as are in the love of God in this sense also may possibly not abide therein but be corrupted from it if not careful to preserve themselves in it yea there is danger hereof especially in evil times That this is so may be evidenced partly 1. In what is said to the Angel of the Church of Ephesus viz. That he had left his first love Rev. 2.4 and of the Angel of the Church of Sardis viz. That he was dead and what remained in him was ready to dye whereas he had more rightly received and heard Rev. 3.1 2 3. and to the Angel of the Church of Laodicea viz. That he was lukewarm and neither hot nor cold Vers 15. implying nothing as if he had never been otherwise nay surely his boasting rather was an effect of his reflecting upon himself and what he had found there so as to grow secure and careless there through as judging he had got such a stock of Grace as could never be spent and come to nothing as Israel so kind in her youth as to follow God in a Wilderness being enriched by him fell off from her affection to him so as to have no love at all for him saying We are Lords we will come no more at thee Jer. 2.23.31 Partly also and more fully 2. In what our Saviour saith Matth. 24.12 Because iniquity shall abound the love of many shall wax cold yea so as to miss of salvation as the next Verse implies wherein he addes But in opposition to those former he that continues to the end as implying that the others had love but continued not to the end in it shall be saved implying that those others should not and yet saying their love should wax cold he implies it was sometime hot And therefore there is need of the exercise here commended by the Apostle Jude for keeping our hearts in a warm temper towards God But here it may be objected Object That the Apostle John saith He that is born of God sinneth not because his seed abideth in him neither can he sin because he is born of God how then can a lover of God fall therefrom Answ To this because not spoken to in the Treatise I shall say the more And so 1. That by born of God is either meant one framed to the mind of God through the knowledge of and acquaintance with him so as he is made in a high degree like him a spiritual one as opposed to the carnal and babes in Christ 1 Cor. 2.14 with 3 12. the perfect 1 Cor. 2.7 as distinguished from such as are yet short one that discerns all things rightly God and Christ and his excellencies so as highly to love and fear him emptiness and vanity in all things else so as not to be taken with them imperfection and mutableness in himself so as he durst not trust himself from him or out of his way one into whose heart wisdom is so entred as that knowledge is become most pleasant to his soul and the feaâ— of the Lord most prevalent so as discretion preserves him and understanding keeps him Prov. 2.10 11 12. in such fear of God and love to him that he cannot sin because he cannot find in his heart or be perswaded to neglect Christ and his counsels and ways or be withdrawn from them And no doubt but in following on to know the Lord and abiding in Christ he will so teach us of all things write his Law and put his love into our hearts subdue and mortifie our corrupt affections and passions and make us so wise as it will be quite contrary to our natures our new natures to sin willingly against him however strongly provoked or tempted thereto as in Joseph that said How can I do such wickedness and sin against God Gen. 39.9 Yea and we attain such height and strength of love to him as that many waters cannot quench it nor the floods drown it Cant. 8.6 7. and as to be perswaded on good
grounds with the Apostle that nothing shall be able to separate us from the love of God even from loving God in Christ Jesus Rom. 8.37 38. but then all right Believers and Lovers of God are not so spiritual as appears 1 Cor. 1.12 with 3.1 2. nor have attained such wisdom and knowledge of him Thence the Apostle saith not I am perswaded nothing shall be able to separate you as speaking to the Romans as in Vers 13. If ye walk after the flesh ye shall dye but us as speaking of himself and the other Apostles and such as they in perfectness and growth 2. Or else by born of God rather may be meant the same with the abider in Christ as in Vers 6. He that abideth in him sinneth not and so Chap. 2 29. He that doth righteousness that constantly and perseveringly doth it is born of God and 1 John 5.1 He that believeth that is goeth on believing perseveringly for words of the present tense it s observed usually or often imply continuance that Jesus is the Christ is born of God and so its like that in Psal 119.23 They that keep his testimonies and seek him with the whole heart they do no iniquity c. 3. Or He that is born of God that is that is led by the Spirit of God as Rom. 8.14 he sins not nor can sin namely as while so led no such fruit can be of him in opposition to Gnosticks or others that impute their sinnings to Gods Spirit say they are tempted or led of God to it 4. And then the word Cannot is taken in a compound sense as when it 's said An evil tree cannot bring forth good fruit nor good tree bad fruit Mat. 7 18. that is abiding such but a bad tree may be made a good tree and a bad man a good and a good tree a right noble Vine may degenerate into a strange plant Jer. 2.21 and so a good man into a bad a lover of God to leave his love of him and that by entertaining 1. The love of the world For if any man love the world the love of the Father is not in him and of that even Fathers and young men such as had overcome the wicked one it seems needs to be admonished also 1 John 2.12 13 14 15 16. as the Apostles themselves were by Christ Matth. 6.24 Luke 21.34 35 36. 2. Corrupt Doctrines such as lead to high-mindedness pride carelesnes or corrupt any ways from the Faith and Gospel Therefore the Apostle warns the Fathers and young men also of the Antichrists 1 John 2.18.26 2 John 8. as Christ did also his Apostles Matth. 24.45.23.24 25. Principles of Atheism Infidelity rejecting the Scriptures and the Hope and Judgement to come Thence the Apostle Peter warning of the Mockers in the last days that would say Where is the promise of his coming bids the Believers take heed lest being led away with their error they should fall from their own stedfastness 2 Pet. 3.4 5 17. By such means men may be withdrawn from their love of God Or 3. By thinking themselves to have abtained and so growing remiss So men heated with their labour and thinking they have wrought enough sitting down may grow cold or catch cold and He that deals with a slack hand becomes poor Prov. 10.4 Or 4. Through the same conceit withdrawing from the Assemblies and Societies of Brethren Thence the Apostle opposes these to those that separate themselves Jud. 19. and forsaking the Assemblies is opposed to holding fast the profession and ushers in wilful sinning Heb. 10.23 25 26. for how can one be hot alone Eccl. 4.11 Need therefore of this Exhortation now especially when Atheism and evil principles so abound And we may be encouraged to take the Apostles Exhortation because he further implies that Note 3. Believers may in a diligent minding the Grace of God and using the means appointed of him through his promised presence and assistance keep themselves in a warm temper in the love of God So our Saviour implies in Matth. 24.13 in that having said The love of many shall wax cold he addes but he that continues to the end shall be saved Men may continue warm in their love then to the end and why not A man in a good way may easily keep himself in it though he meet with Cheats or Robbers if having good directions a skilful faithful guide using strong perswasions to follow him and his directions and a strong Guard to secure him from violences he will but adhere to and follow them and nothing but amazing wilfulness Jer. 2.12 13. may endanger him being brought into the love of God The same that brought us into it will keep us in it namely the love and grace of God in Christ if minded kept in view and obeyed by us whereto we have good directions in his Word and Doctrine and the Holy Spirit of Wisdom is given from Christ to be our Guide and Director therein And taking heed thereto and making use of those Gifts and Ordinances appointed by him to that purpose God and Christ will guard and secure us from Satan and his instruments Thence it s said Forsake not wisdom and she will preserve thee love her and she will keep thee Prov. 4.6 and He that abideth in the Doctrine of Christ hath both the Father and the Son to secure him from miscarrying 2 John 9. 1 John 2.24 25. The same exercise or perpetuated fire that will warm a man when cold will easily preserve a man in his heat when heated by it if not forsaken and both the Word and Love of God are compared to fire and hot burning coals Jer. 23.29 Cant. 8.6 7. Keep we but to them and they will keep us warm and as for exercise to keep us warm It s further implied Note 4. That it 's a good and useful exercise that we are here directed to viz. To edifie our selves on our most holy Faith praying in the Holy Ghost For 1. Therein we are put upon minding Gods and Christs love to us that being the great matter held forth in the Faith whence it 's called The Gospel of the Grace of God Acts 20.24 and that minded will nourish as well as beget love and warmth thereof in us toward him 2. Thence we shall gather strength against our enemies and what would prejudice us against God and cool our love to him for a little to adde to what is somewhat too barely mentioned p. 177. l. 25 26 27. there through we may grow in wisdom for he that cleaves more firmly to Christ the Wisdom of God shall receive more of the Spirit of Wisdom from him and He that walks with wise men shall be wise Prov. 13.20 for in the mystery of Christ held forth by and among them amd in Christ himself are hid all the treasures of wisdom and knowledge Col. 2.3 and the wise man is strong and the man of understanding encreaseth strength Prov. 24. â— for wisdom
strengthens the wise more than weapons of war Eccles 7.19 Thence the being rooted and built up in Christ and his mystery is the way to be preserved from such as would intice us Coloss 2.2 3 4 7. As also thence we shall be more filled with love to God and Christ and Love is strong as death Cant. 8.6 yea and therein we may warn one another of and arm one another against our enemies and coolers and instruct and encourage one another and provoke to love and good works and so strengthen one another 1 Thess 5.11 14. Heb. 10.23 24. Two are better than one to keep from falling or help up again Cant. 4.10 3. In the fellowship of holy men also is spiritual heat Thence also Solomon tells us Two is better than one for if two lie together they will be hot fervent in spirit and in love to God and one another Cant. 4.11 For there God commands the blâ—ssing and life for ever Psal 133.4 4. And then praying in the Holy Ghost the Spirit of Faith and Love is the way to obtain more Spirit and Grace from God Matth. 7.7 11. Luke 11.13 and thereby we may have more experience of him answering our prayers which engages to love him the more and so tends to encrease in us and keep us in the love to him infused by him Psal 18.1.3.4 116.2 I love the Lord because he hath heard my prayer c. But though these things might have been more largely handled in the Treatise yet it being sent up to the press before I thought of doing so and in the Press before I thought it was And what is there said about keeping our selves in the love of God in the other sense of it which I look upon as the more proper and genuine sense including and leading to this it shall suffice to have given these hints of them here Which having done I shall detain thee no longer from the Treatise it self But wishing and praying for Gods blessing on and with both it and thee that my cost and pains therein be not lost and with desire of thy prayers for meâ—â— and thanks to God if thou meetest with blessing in and benefit by it I leave thee to God and rest Lyn March 17. 1670 1 Thy Friend and Servant in the Gospel of Christ John Horne Books sold by Thomas Passenger at the Three Bibles on London-Bridge ROyal and Practical Chymistry by Oswaldus Crollius and John Hartman faithfully rendred into English folio price 10 s Gods Revenge against Murther by John Reynolds containing Thirty Tragical stories digested into six Books newly reprinted folio price 10 s. 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THe Epistle of Jude analized and paraphrased to Verse 20. which is the Text page 1. The Text propounds a serious counsel to unfeigned Believers page 10. Wherein is I. The title or compellation of them Beloved Whence is observed Observ 1. That they that abide in the faith when others turn aside or endeavour to corrupt it are more worthy than others p. 11. II. The note of distinction But ye Whence it is observed Observ 2. That there is a great difference between hearty Believers and others especially between them and Backsliders or Corrupters and that difference is to be noted by Christs Ministers p. 13. III. The mattâ—â— mainly exhorted to To keep themselves in the love of God Observ 3. That Believers are in Gods love p. 16. Which is 1. General or a love of pity p. 17. 2. Special A love of owning and delight p. 20. Believers are in the general love both as all others p. 23. Believers are in the general love both and so as others are not p. 26 And they are in the special love p. 24. The streams fruits thereof in 12 particulars p. 25 to p. 39. Which is applied by way of use 1. To unbelievers by way of Exhortation p. 40 Reproof p. 43 Instruction p. 45. 2. To believers by way of 1. Comfort p. 46 2. Exhortation and that to Love and hope in God p. 50 To rejoyce in and give thanks to God p. 51 To moderation in griefs fears c. p. 52 To obedience to him p. 53 To abide in him p. 54 Which leads to Observ 4. That it 's the believers greatest concernment to keep themselves and one another in the love of God p. 56 Whence four points and noted as included Point 1. That possibly â—ey may go out of Gods love which is explicated and proved p. 60 to 68 An Objection is there answered Point 2. That there is not onely possibility but danger also p. 71 Danger 1. Of it from 1. The many enemies endeavouring it p. 73 1 Satan ib. 2. The flesh p. 44 3. The world p. 75 4. False Teachers p. 76 2. The believers weakness to defend himself p. 81. Or rather aptness to conceit himself strong p. 85 3. The holiness and severity of God against withdrawers p. 87 2. In it shewed in four particulars p. 92 93. Point 3. That there is no necessity of it Believers may keep themselves in Gods love p. 94 Not of themselves p. 95 But by the Grace of God p. 96 Which is considered in seven particulars p. 97 The Armour of defence given them briefly explicated p. 106 Point 4. That it 's expected from the believer and is put upon him in some sort as his work to keep himself in the love of God p. 111 Which is considered 1. As to its act what is implied in it p. 112 2. As to its reaâ—â—ns p. 115 The fourth Observation with its several points applied 1. By way of Reproof several ways p. 120 2. By way of Exhortation to care and watchfulness p. 124 IV. The way and means of this preservation Edifying your selves c. Thence Observe That the way for believers to keep themselves in the love of God is to edifie themselves in their most holy faith praying in the Holy Ghost p. 128 In which are two branches viz. I. To edifie themselves
4. The means and course to be taken and used by them to attain that end and that is in ver 20. and that is two-fold 1. Building up your selves on your most holy Faith 2. Praying in the Holy Ghost keep c. 5. The manner posture or frame of heart in which they were to do all these things viz. in proposing to themselves the ultimate end Eternal Life to have their hearts and minds exercised to and waiting for the most necessary means as from Christ toward them as to their attaining thereof namely the mercy of our Lord Jesus Christ without which nothing of those other great things exhorted and directed too could be to any purpose either done or attempted by them Waiting for the mercy of our Lord Jesus Christ unto Eternal life The two former the Compellation or Title given these persons to whom this Epistle was writ and their distinction from the ungodly and deceivers before described and warned of we shall not insist upon much only we might note from the first Obs 1. That such as abide in the Truth of God and walk therein when others turn from it abuse or oppose it are worthy of and are to be respected with more love by those who are over them in the word of the Lord and minister the knowledge of God amongst men than such as slight and depart therefrom and so they were Beloved of the Apostles and Servants of Christ as well as of Christ himself in their Ages For This word Beloved signifies not only pitied commiserated or persons for whom good is desired for so much love may and should be testified to others whilst there is hope for them that they may be saved as Paul testified such love to the unbelieving Jews who stumbled at the stumbling stone and submitted not themselves to the righteousness of God Rom. 9.33 and 10.1 2 3. and it is to be testified to all that have not sinned to death 1 Tim. 2.1 2. with John 5.16 but Beloved is more intimately affected valued esteemed owned delighted in and desired as so Christ is called God's Beloved one in whom his Soul is well-pleased Isa 42.1 with Matt. â— 12.18 and 3.17 This is my Beloved or well-beloved Son c. Cant. And so Christ is also called by the Church his Spouse Her Beloved One Cant. 1.13 14 16. It is a word implying and signifying more indearedness of affection towards the persons so spoken to and stiled and therefore usual in the writings of the Apostles to Brethren in the faith and confession of Christ and never to strangers from or much less the enemies to it By their use of which they signified either 1. That the Brethren Believers in Christ were dearly cared for valued and prized of God and Christ objects of their especial care and affection and partakers of his Grace and Love or 2. That they were especially amongst men cared for owned valued and delightfully affected by them the Apostles and their fellow-labourers they being therein of the mind of God and Christ to love and affect especially those who with special care and affection are embraced of Christ and of God in and through him All men are to be honoured but the Brotherhood in a special sense to be beloved 1 Pet. 2.17 not only though specially also with a love of Charity but also with a love of Brotherly kindness a love of Brethren 1. Pet. 3.9 Hebr. 13. 2 Pet. 1.7 even as Christ preferred such before his natural Brethren Mother and Sisters as such only Matth. 12.48 49 50. So did the Apostles and Servants of Christ prefer the hearty believers of the Doctrine of Christ before all other persons and so demeaned themselves in word and deed towards them owning them as their Brethren and beloved carrying themselves to them as Fathers toward their children 1 Cor. 4.14 15. 2 Cor. 12 14. yea as a Tender Nurse or Foster-Mother toward her little ones as Thess 2.7 8. They were gentle towards them as a Nurse that cherisheth her children so kindly affectionate to them that they were willing to impart their lives and Souls to them And so they instructed the Elders and Ministers ordained by them to be especially careful of and watchful over such Act. 20.28 1 Pet. 5.4 2 3. and exhorted them to be kindly affectioned one to another Rom. 12.10 yea and this from the difference between these and others For Obser 2. As there is a great difference between hearty believers in Christ and others that believe not and much more those that are turned aside and endeavour to corrupt others from the faith of him so the Apostles used and others that are the Servants and Ministers of Christ should use in their ministration to put a great difference between them also for The righteous is more excellent then his neighbour Prov. 12.26 More excellent both as to his root which is Christ and God in him in whom he is by faith planted and stands and grows and in respect of his branches or what issues and springs up from the faith of Christ in his heart as his thoughts and estimates of and affections to God his Truth Wayes People Though there may be much of the flesh cleaving to him in these and rendring these so imperfect that he hath no cause to boast of them in the presence of God yet in these the righteous believing person is far otherwise and better than his Neighbour that is unrighteous and hath nothing of the sap virtue and Spirit of Christ in him And then in his fruits and usefulness to others in word and work and for the glorifying of God to and amongst them and shewing to them the way of righteousness which being righteous he doth also practice and exercise himself to His lips feed many and his tongue is as choice silver Prov. 10.20 21. He is furnished for others good and helpfulness so as others are not and his estate and condition is far more excellent Better a little that he hath than the great riches of many wicked Psal 37.16 Yea he is more noble and honourable in his birth and descent as righteous as being a Son of God John 1.12 More rich as being an Heir of God and of the Kingdom that he hath promised to them that love him Rom. 8.17 James 2.5 He is more safe and secure as more out of the reach of danger as being infolded in the everlasting Armes of God and in all respects is furnished with and interested in far more durable and excellent injoyments than his Neighbour is i. e. then any other man that is not righteous or that is out of the Faith of Christ and therefore much more than the wicked Apostates and Deceivers that are Trees twice dead and pluckt up by the roots as this Apostle saith for they are corrupt and their hearts wicked and their works and fruits abominable and wretched being fallen from God and his Truth there is less hope of them than of any others For better
of the flesh to be honoured of God or will of this or that man hath any thing to do in or makes any difference in All that are in Christ being born thereto and therein of God and reckoned after Christ in whom they are as Gal. 3.28 29. with John 1 13. signifies and then from and as a consequent to this 4. God so loves them as to give them the Spirit of the Son both his Spirit to open the knowledge of Christ his Son to them and the disposition liberty boldness towards and affection to and affiance in him in some measure The same Spirit that dwelt in and yet dwells in Christ and led him as man in the dayes of his flesh to have confidence in and boldness towards his Father and so to go to him upon all occasions as to his Father he gives also to the believer in him to let him know Gods Fatherly love to and care of him upon the account of Christ and to lead him in hope and confidence to depend on and call upon him as also to guide instruct comfort strengthen and help him on all occasions To this purpose is that in Gal. 4.5 6. Because ye are Sons God hath sent forth the Spirit of his Son into your hearts crying Abba Father and so many as are led by the Spirit of God they are the Sons of God and the Spirit it self helps our infirmities c. Rom. 8.15 16 26 27. and this he gives both as a pledge of his love and acceptance and as an earnest of the Inheritance Ephes 1.13 14. 2 Cor. 1.22 5. Yea and as he gives them the priviledge of Sons and the Spirit of his Son so also the respect of Sons so as that as he heard and helped Christ his only begotten Son in the dayes of his flesh in all that he called upon him for and took care of him to provide for and protect him so doth he also to those that believe in his Son The eyes of the Lord are open upon the righteous and his ears are open unto their cryes and his face is set against the wicked that hate and oppress them 1 Peter 3.12 13. He is nigh unto his people in all that they call upon him for as our Saviour also promises John 15.7 Abide in me and let my words abide in you and ask what ye will it shall be given you and that as a testimony of his great love to them in which he imbraceth them in Christ his beloved one in whom they are accepted Ephes 1.16 See also John 14.13 14. Psal 145.17 18 19. as our Saviour testifies John 16.27 saying In that day ye shall ask the Father in my Name namely when they had received the promise of the holy Spirit to be a Spirit of grace and supplication in them and I do not say that I will pray the Father for you for the Father himself loveth you because ye have loved me and have believed that I came out from God Yea 6. In his love he teacheth them by his holy Spirit and leads them into all truth as is good and needful for them John 14.17 26. Prov. 1.23 teacheth them how to walk and how to pray guides and leads them in the way that they should go makes known his words shews them his mind the Mysteries of his Kingdom c. So Psal 25 8 9 12 14. Good and upright is the Lord therefore will he teach sinners the way the meek will he guide in judgment the meek will he teach his way i. e. those that being convinced of their own poverty and emptiness do meekly receive his words The secret of the Lord is with them that fear him and he will shew them his Covenant And Matth. 13.11 To you sayes Christ to his Disciples it is given to know the Mysteries of the Kingdom of God and I have called you not Servants but Friends for all things that I have heard of my Father have I made known to you He takes care of them that they may not wander out of the way of life and righteousness yea he shews them those delights and pleasures of his wayes and gives them a glimpse too of the glory of the end of it even of the glory of his Kingdom so as that they are thereby made to love his way and walk in it comfortably and with great delight Prov. 3.17 Psal 119 32 165. 7. In love also he nurtures them as his Children giving them chastisement as he sees needful and good for them not leaving them to their own counsels wayes and wills as he doth those that coutemn his counsels and submit not to him He is faithfully reproving and warning them and timely châ—stening them with his afflictions that he might teach them his Law and they might keep his Statutes Psal 94 12. and 119 67 71. as a Father that loves his Child and therefore spares not his Rod Prov. 13.24 for he knows that a Child left to himself comes to misery and shame nor yet doth he in afflicting smite them as he smites these that smite them and are his and their enemies but as a Father chastens the Son in whom he delighteth Prov. 3.11 12 Isai 27.7 8. that is he doth it in measure and judgment not in fury so as he sees they may bear and as may be for their profit Isai 27.8 9. Heb. 12.10 He is faithful and will not suffer them to be tempted above what they are able but with the temptation or tryal will give an issue that they may be able to bear it 1 Cor. 10 12. For he pities them as a Father pities his Child knowing their mold and temper and that they are but dust and therefore doth not deal with them after their sins nor reward them according to their iniquities but punisheth them less than they deserve is slow to wrath toward them and abundant in goodness and truth and doth not chide them alwayes nor retain his anger for ever Psal 103.9 10 11 12 13. yea and with his chastisements affords his supports and consolations to refresh their hearts Psal 94.18 19 yea and turns again and hath compassion according to the multitude of his tender mercies Lam. 3.32 Yea 8. He takes pleasure in them in them that fear him and in them that hope in his mercy Psal â—47 11 The Lord takes pleasure in his people Psal 49.4 It 's his design and delight to make them happy and to beautifie them with his Salvation to make them as a Crown of Glory and as a royal Diadem in his hand therefore he calls them Hepâ—zibah that is my delight or pleasure is in her owning them together in Christ as his royal Spouse and Consort as Isai 54 5. with 62 2 3 4. it rejoyceth his heart to see them thrive and prosper for he hath pleasure in the prosperity of his Servants Psal 35.27 Yea and though they have their failings weaknesses and spots that might render them unlovely yet having given Christ to
counsel from the wise nor the word from the Prophet c. as if they were the men that were the true and right Priests wise men and Prophets and the Law Wisdome and word of God were intailed on them and in Jer. 29.26 we read that Shemajah the Nehelamite writ to Maasiah the Priest and to all the Priests that God had made him Priest and them Officers in the â—â—se of the Lord for every man that is mad and maketh himself a Prophet to put him in prison and in the stocks and faults him for not reproving Jeremiah who made himself a Prophet as if Gods true Prophetâ— had prophecied falsly to them and had been a false Prophet and a Deceiver because he foretold the length and continuance of their captivity beyond what they dreamed and bare the people in hand it would be and as if they who were indeed false Prophets and Deceivers had been in the right yea Sathan is sometimes so transformed into an Angel of light and his Messengers into Ministers of Righteousness and come with such deceivableness of unrighteousness as renders it very difficult to discern them and to avoid their snares and temptations as also the sayings of the Scriptures which have any appearance as sometime they have to countenance their mistakes are so wrested and made use of by them as they thereby indanger such as have believed to fall and be perverted and spoiled by them in case they be not more earnest with God and watchful over themselves and one another in taking heed to the Gospel-doctrine for preservation such be their enemies and their dangers from them As also 2. In respect of their own weakness and inabillity in themselves to defend themselves from and against those enemies whether those within them or those without them there being nothing in them as of them that can do any thing to purpose against them In them that is in their flesh there dwelleth no good thing their natural or artificially acquired wisdom is far too short of the wisdom or subtlety of the Serpent that indeavours to delude them yea it is full of inclination to side and agree with him by reason of the great blindness and depravedness of it that it hath deâ—â—ved from him for the wisdom of the flesh is not only foolishness to God but also enmity against him 1 Cor. 3.19 Rom. 8.7 So that if the Believer or he that hath believed neglecting the testimony of Christ the Word of God the â—â—eaching of the Cross which is the Power and Wisdom of God 1 Cor. 1.23 24. and not taking heed or having recourse thereto trust in his own wisdom and understanding he will soon be over-reached and perverted and often is by the subtlety of Satan overthrown therefore the Wisdom of God in Prov 3.5 7. counsels her Children thus Trust in the Lord with all thine heart and lean not to thine own understanding Be not wise in thine own eyes fear the Lord and depart from evil for as the Lord saith of some in Jer. 8.9 when the Word of the Lord is rejected by men what wisdom is there in them The like may be said of their own strength power and abillity in their own resolutions to withstand temptations and enemies it is but weakness it self Even the best and most unfeigned Belivers have no sufficiency of themselves as of themselves but all their sufficiency is of God and without him and his help and strength and so neglecting him and hiâ— counsels and so going in their own strength and without his they can do nothing as our Saviour saith to his Disciples Without me ye even ye my Disciples who are branches of me yet without me neglecting me or not looking to and relying on me and so taking me along with you ye can do nothing John 15.5 6. Thence those counsels to abide in Christ in the same Chapter and elsewhere to be strong in the Lord and in the power of his might to put on the whole armour of God that so they may be able to withstand in the evil day or day of tryal and having done all to stand Ephes 6.10 11 12 13. and in 2 Tim. 2.1 To be strong in the Grace that is in Christ Jesus as implying that otherwise we have no power or strength to withstand them or to stand in the Grace and savour of God and so to go through the various tryals that attend us in Gods way and service It s only in Gods armour strength and power that we may prevail and not be overthrown or harmed by them And indeed the want of strength proceeds from the want of wisdom or the insufficiency in their strength is from the insufficiency in their own understanding we have no power of our selves because no wisdom that may give us power for it is the wise man that is strong and the man of understanding that increaseth strength as Solomon tells us Prov. 24.5 Now this weakness in the Believers understanding and strength may be the reason why they are often in the Scripture called Children and little Children as in John 13.33 1 John 2 1 18 28. For as Children little Children are weak in both those respects so are Believers in themselves yea in their attainments from God and Christ if they be relyed on and he neglected for though God hath given forth such an heavenly testimony as is able to make wise the simple Psal 19.7 and hath given gifts to men some Apostles some Evangelists some Prophets c. that we might not be as Children tossed to and fro and carryed about with every blast and wind of Doctrine Ephes 4.11.14 And the Apostle would have the Believers not to be children in understanding but men 1 Cor. 14.20 Yet the same Apostle both signifies that in the state of this life the growth and attainment of Believers even the perfectest of them here is as far below the state of absolute and compleat perfection which is the state of the life to come as the state of a Child a little Child is short of the state of manhood 1 Cor. 13.11 12. and also more frequently implyes that only in attending to and relying on Christ and taking heed to his testimony we may be delivered from the imputation inabillity and weakness of Children in deriving wisdom and strength from â—im and so in being supplyed with his wisdom and strength by his Spirit in the receit of the gifts given or Word and Testimony as given forth by them so that if we do in the conceit of our sufficiency in what we have in our selves neglect dependance on and attendance to Christ in and by the said gifts or the testimony thereby given forth it will fare with us as it did with Sampson when parting with his Locks in which his strength lay he became as weak feeble and as unable to make resistance against the Philistims his enemies as other ordinary men we shall be found to act like weak and simple Children and
them either from Satan as an enemy suggesting fears to them even from their Fathers righteously judging them or on other accounts or from the world persecuting them the assured hope of Gods salvation or the salvation of God Gods sure protection and defence of them here and his bringing or delivering them out in his due time as set before them by way of promise in the Gospel and so an object and matter of hope to be looked for by them And then They have 6. The Sword of the Spirit the Word of God as a two-edged Weapon fit and forcible to do them service both by way of defence to themselves and by way of offence to their enemies so as that thereby they may both be preserved from the lyes of Satan and his Instruments and from all his lying and wicked suggestions and they may beat them away and drive them from them yea and cause the enemies of Christ and of their faith by their powerful convincements thereof to fall before them so Christ kept himself from the wicked one that he touched him not by any of his temptations Matth. 4. and so both he and his Servants have confounded their Adversaries and convinced and converted many of them And then lastly They have free access to God through Jesus Christ by Prayer and supplication to make known their needs and requests to him either for supplyes and help to themselves and one another or for rebuking taking off or weakening their Adversaries and Exercises And they have through Christ the Spirit of grace and supplication to instruct and help them to pray and direct their desires and petitions for them and Christ himself with God as their Mediator High-Priest and Advocate to make their Prayers acceptable to God and this is a marvellous powerful and effectual Weapon being filled with Faith to obtain any thing from Heaven needful for their defence and safety and to batter down the Forts and Strengths of their Adversaries by pulling down judgments from Heaven upon them This is as the Christians Bullets of Ordnance that he storms Heaven by as it were and takes it by force and that being shot up towards Heaven from a fervent faithful heart falls down again upon the wicked Adversaries and doth great execution and slaughter upon them so we may see how the Prayers of the Saints being offered up by the Angel who had many sweet odours to make them acceptable Revel 8.3 4 5. procured fire to be cast upon the earth with voyces thundrings lightnings and a great earthquake whereby the judgments of God upon the Adversaries were implyed and signified Now all these things being considered it will evidently appear that it is very possible for the Believer to be kept in the love of God nay that it is certain he shall be so if he be not greatly neglective of the means of his safety and preservation so many and so effectual for that purpose yea indeed a man might marvail these things for the Believers defence being well weighed how it should possibly be that he should fail of the Grace of God fall out of his love and favour and perish from his presence by any means but that we have seen the possibility and danger too thereof before asserted which also may further as to the reason of it be made manifest in the next consideration wherein it is further noted as implyed that he being so strongly and well fortified and furnished for his safe keeping in the love of God Point 4. It is expected from him and in some sense lyes upon him as his work to keep himself and each Believer to keep his Brother therein Though as he did not bring himself into Christ and so into the love and favour of God by his wisdom will power or goodness but he was called into him and made in him of God so neither is it his work in his own power wisdom and strength to keep himself there or defend himself from what would intice him or force him out Yet as it was his act in and by the Grace of God in Christ to believe and come to Christ and so into the love and favour of God So it is his act also subordinately in and by the same Grace to keep himself in Christ and so in the love of God whence our Saviour so often requires it of his Disciples Abide in me and let my words abide in you continue ye in my love Joh. 15.4.9 Hold fast what thou hast let no man take away thy Crown Rev. 3.11 with which agrees many passages of the Apostles to stand fast quit themselves like men let that they have received abide abide in Christ and the like as also that assertion in 1 John 5.18 He that is born of God keepeth himself that the wicked one toucheth him not In which keeping a mans self in the love of God is signified as to the act of it 1. That the Believer be and abide in that state and way he is already in through the Grace of God not departing voluntarily leaving or going out therefrom keep himself well while he is well being content with Christ confident and well assured of his well doing and happiness in so continuing to that purpose are those phrases of abiding continuing not departing or withdrawing from the living God as in John 8.32 and 15.4 5 6 7. Col. 1.23 1 John 2.24 28. Heb. 3.12 and 10.35 38 39. as implying that no man heartily believing in Christ can miscarry but through a voluntary neglect of or departure from him It is no violence done to him can force him but by his own consent The case of a Believer as we shewed before is like the condition of a man that though very weak and unable of himself to resist or stand against the power of his enemies yet hath a strong Castle or Tower in which he is so strongly fortified and so every way unattachable by either storming undermining or starving of him that there is certain safety for him in abiding in it and no possibility for his enemies catching of him unless he voluntarily go out of it Such is the Believers condition being in Christ and God nothing can come upon him to harm him none can pluck or take him by force out of it unless he willingly sin and depart from God and Christ after the knowledge of the Truth received against which departing and drawing back from and forsaking God and so their own mercies the Spirit of God therefore by his Servants is diligently provoking and exhorting them as Take heed Brethren least there be in any of you an evil heart of unbelief in departing from the living God and let us hold fast the profession of our faith without wavering for he is faithful that hath promised Cast not away your confidence c Heb. 3.12 and 10.23 35. 2. That because Satan by himself and Instruments is crafty subtle and vigilant to intice allure and tempt Believers to make a voluntary
that we fall not into Temptation To take heed least our hearts at any time be overcharged with surfetting and drunkenness c. to take heed of false Prophets and that no man deceive us To give all diligence that we fail not of or fall not off from the Grace of God To beware of flothfulness because that casteth into a deep sleep of Spiritual security and carelessness and then a man lies open to the enemy to fall upon him and destroy or devour him but to follow the steps of those who through faith and patience have inherited the promises exhortations and warnings and provocations by manifold Arguments to all diligence in this matter are every where obvious in the Scriptures to believers and that that is said and shewed before both of the possibility and danger of failing otherwise of the Grace and love of God as to its continuance and the fearful things that befal in such a case as also the certainty of abiding in it and obtaining unspeakable joy and happiness in our care and diligence in depending on God and Christ and expectance of such diligence and earnestness in us may incite and provoke to the diligence circumspection and watchfulness exhorted too and reprove that too great carelessness negligence and slothfulness in these matters of so great concernment too ordinarily found even in Believers as it was found and reproved in the Angel of the Church of Ephesus leaving his first love and in the Angel of the Church of Sardis that had almost quite lost all his strength so as that he was ready to die and in the Church of Laodicea or the Angel therof grown Lukewarm therefore ready to be spewed out of Christs mouth unless he awakened up to zeal and diligence and repented of his indifferencie upon Christs reproofs of him Rev. 2.4 5. and 3.1 2 14 15 16 19. Oh it is a great shame for us to be careful and diligent to keep or increase our Estates or Honours here in this World which after a while do what we can must be taken from us from us or we from them and to be so indifferent and negligent about retaining that Grace and favour of God whereto he hath admitted us by Jesus Christ as if it were not of that worth and excellencie as those other poor fading and uncertain matters when as it is the source spring and fountain of all blessedness and happiness But I shall pass from this first and main matter of the Text to the next The way and mean to keep our selves in God's love and that is edifying our selves in our most holy faith praying in the Holy Ghost whence we may note That Observ 5. The way for Believers to keep themselves in the love of God is to edifie themselves on their most holy faith praying in the Holy Ghost Here be two means 1. Edifying themselves on their most holy Faith 2. Praying in the Holy Ghost Let us if God permit consider them in order And first 1. Divers things as to the first of them are to be explained for better understanding and usefulfulness of the Proposition as to that Branch of it as to say 1. What is meant by the Faith here on which Believers are to build up themselves and one another 2. Why is it called their Faith 3. Why is it called their most holy Faith 4. What that is that is to be builded on it 5. How the believer is to be builded on it And 6. What that signifies that they build up themselves and how that they may do that 7. How the building up themselves thereon conduceth to the keeping themselves in the love of God 1. For the Faith here mentioned what it is or signifies we are to mind that the word Faith is is used two ways either 1. For the act or habit of believing and so it often signifies as in these expressions Lord increase our faith and if ye had faith as a grain of mustard seed ye should be able to say to this Sycamore tree be thou plucked up by the roots and be thou planted into the midst of the Sea and it should obey you Luke 17.4 5. Your faith is spoken of throughout the world Rom. 1.5 Faith cometh by hearing and hearing is of the word of God Rom. 10.17 After I heard of your faith in the Lord Jesus and love to all the Saints Ephes 1.15 and many others 2. For the Doctrine of faith and the matter and object of faith in it contained to that purpose is that of Paul Gal. 1.22 He that persecuted us now preacheth the faith that he destroyed So Gal. 3.2 Received ye the Spirit by the works of the Law or by the hearing of Faith So verse 5. and 7. and 9. They that he of Faith the same are the Children of Abraham and are blessed with faithful Abraham Now in as much as the Faith or Doctrine preached is also called the preaching of Christ or of Jesus Christ Acts 9.20 Rom. 16.25 1 Cor. 1.22 24. We preach Christ crucified And 2 Cor. 4 5. We preach not our selves but Christ Jesus the Lord Therefore even Christ himself as preached and declared in the Gospel may also be contained in the signification of the word Faith when taken in this second sense and meaning Now that the word faith is not meant here in the former but in the latter sense is evident because it is here represented as the foundation to be built upon or matter wherewith they were to be built up but that is not faith as it signifies the act or habit of believing for that is something built rather upon the foundation or at most the way or means of building or being built on it Christ himself as held forth in the Apostles Doctrine or also the Apostles Doctrine as holding forth Christ in it is the foundation and is so spoken of in the Apostles Writings as in 1 Cor. 3 11. Other foundations can no man lay than that which is laid which is Jesus Christ What more plain than that Jesus Christ is the only foundation laid of God and of his Apostles in their Doctrine To this purpose it is that the Apostle Peter quotes that Scripture of the Prophet Isaiah Chap. 28.16 and applyes it to Christ in 1 Pet. 2.4 6. where having called him the Living stone chosen of God and precious he saith Wherefore it is contained in the Scriptures behold I lay in Sion a chief corner-stone elect precious and he that believeth on him shall not be confounded Unto you therefore which believe he is precious c. This is that foundation which the Apostle speaks of to Timothy when he saith 2 Tim. 2.19 The foundation of God standeth sure 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 or firm having this seal the Lord knoweth them that are his c. For therein God seals to it owns and approves or knows all that be his the foundations namely or knows the foundation it self as peculiarly his as Christ is and others that
are his in him by vertue of him known and owned by him as also in this that he allows not any in iniquity that name his Name though by vertue of Christ held forth in the Apostles Doctrine that also may secondarily be called the foundation of the Prophets and Apostles as in Ephes 2.20 Built upon the foundation of the Apostles and Prophets Jesus Christ himself being the chief corner-stone That Doctrine then or Christ himself as therein preached as the Son of God and Saviour of the World delivered up to death and crucified for our offences and raised again from the dead for our justification and glorified at ' Gods right hand for our salvation and that our faith and hope might be in God and so as appointed to be Lord and Christ the Judge of all who shall come again to judge both the quick and the dead is the faith here meant whereon Believers are to edifie and build up themselves and not their act acts or habit of believing which may be added to and builded up being imperfect upon this foundation so as this foundation cannot upon any thing else yea that Christ as so laid and held forth in the Cospel is the foundation to be built on is plain For 1. Christ was the first thing appointed or laid of God for fallen mankind as to his purpose and promise of him and he was the first thing preached to him in order to his return to God This was the Doctrine first preached in Paradise after our first Parents had sinned and were convicted thereof I will put enmity between thee the Serpent and the Woman and between thy seed and her seed He her Seed shall bruise thy head and thou shalt bruise his heel Though Christ was not as then actually manifested in the flesh crucified dead buried and raised again yet all that was intimately preached from the beginning as a thing to be accomplished in its time and season 2. And as this was the first thing or Doctrine preached so it was the foundation and ground of all other dispensations of God after to fallen man It is upon that account of Christs having interposed between God and us as the bruiser of the Serpents head the destroyer of his work the taker away and abolisher of Death that God now deals mercifully and graciously with men is inviting and leading them to repentance by â—is goodness and forbearance and lades them with his benefits and sends forth his light and truth to men to call them back to himself and to his Kingdom to be under his government and protection from which they were banished for their iniquity and so it is the ground and foundation of his Ordinances witnessing of Christ and of himself in Christ unto men and appointed as mediums for mens approaching to him and seeking of him and of Gods raising up and judging all men according to their works hereafter for there would have been no resurrection from the first death to any new judgment much less to life if Christ had not come and dyed for all men and risen again 1 Cor. 15.12 17 18. Acts 10.42 and 17.30 31. The final rewards and recompencings of men then as also his present chastisements in mercy and measure now and accepting and justifying saving and honouring those that believe in him and serve him stand upon Christ and his death and sufferings for all men and rising again and being appointed Lord of all and Mediator of God and men the propitiation for our sins even for the sins of the whole world as their proper ground and foundation Yea 3. He as so set forth is the ground and foundation of all right repenting and turning to God from our our sins and of all right believing hoping and trusting in God for his mercy and blessing of all prayers and praises to be made to God and so of all true piety and religion in fallen men for had there not been such a Ransome found out and Sacrifice offered for us there could have been no approach for us to God or acquaintance with God God sent him that the world through him might be saved and raised him from the dead and gave him glory that our faith and hope might be in God John 3.17 1 Pet. 2.21 So that he and the Word of the Gospel as setting him forth is meant by the faith here on which Believers are built and to build up themselves and each other 2. Now this is called their faith not because it is of them of their invention broaching or preparing as a foundation for themselves or others but because it is owned received and confessed by them it is that that they have and believe in their hearts unto righteousness and with their mouths confess to the salvation of themselves and others as Paul sometimes calls the Gospel he preached his Gospel as in 2 Tim. 2.8 According to my Gospel And so Rom. 2.16 Not because it was of him found out or invented or set on foot by him as if he had preached any thing for Gospel that he had not received from God and Christ but because it was ministred and preached by him even so this faith after the same manner is called the Believers faith as elsewhere The faith of Gods Elect Tit. 1.2 because made known and delivered to his elected and chosen Servants such as he chose to be his Servants the holy Apostles and Prophets to be declared and published by them as accordingly it was published by them and as it is called The faith once delivered to the Saints in this Epistle of Jude ver 3. because it was delivered to them and preached by them it might be called their faith though otherwise it is the faith of God and Christ Yea and in calling it the faith of these believers the Apostle intimately distinguisheth it from the false saiths or false doctrines of the false Teachers and Seducers of whom he had been warning them as if he should say it is not their faith they have corrupted themselves and fallen away from it and have received or devised and broached another faith doctrine or foundation different from and repugnant to yours with which I would have you have nothing to do much less build your selves thereon for that would not render you an house or habitation for God and so objects of his favour but Synagogues of Satan and objects of Gods wrath and anger but build ye up your selves on your faith which he also the better to induce them thereto calls their most holy faith Which leads us to the third particular 3. Why it is called the most holy faith 1. It is holy that is it is pure faultless no falshood or corruption in it for so holiness is sometimes opposed to uncleanness or filthiness as We are not called to uncleanness but unto holiness 1 Thes 4.7 Cleanse our selves from all filthiness of flesh and spirit perfecting holiness in the fear of the Lord 2 Cor. 7.1 So this Doctrine delivered
to the Saints preached by the holy Apostles and Prophets and witnessed to by the holy Spirit and so by the holy God who bare witness to the Preachers of it both with Signs and wonders and divers miracles and gifts of the Holy Ghost Heb. 24. is a holy pure clean Word The Word of the Lord as the Gospel of Jesus Ghrist as preached by the Apostles is often called as in Acts 6 2 7. and 8.25 and 12.24 and 13.5 7 12 44 46 49. is pure as Silver seven times tryed in the fire Psal 12.6 No dross or mixture in it it is not yea and nay but yea yea or yea and Amen as in 2 Cor. 1.18 19. As God is true our word toward you was not yea and nay for the Son of God Jesus Christ who was preached among you by us was not yea and nay but in him was yea for all the promises of God in him are yea and in him Amen unto the glory of God by us The Apostles did speak in simplicity and sincerity what they had heard and received from God and Christ and did not as the false Apostles sophisticate and corrupt the Word of God as the Apostle also saith 2 Cor. 2.17 But as in sincerity and as of God they spake in Christ in the sight of God Even as Jesus Christ himself the matter and subject of their word the faith or foundation of faith the object to be closed with and rested or built upon is the holy One the holy One of Israel and so is frequently stiled as Acts 3.14 Ye denyed the holy One and the just So 1 John 2.20 Ye have an Vnction from the holy One and ye know all things And Heb. 7.26 He is holy harmless undefiled c. a spotless one a Lamb without blemish his nature and life and death and sacrifice and person altogether blameless sinless and undefiled even so the Doctrine of the Apostles concerning him was pure and clean too like to pure water No soil or mud in it Yea and 2. It was and is set apart separated and devoted to God and for his glory to be the foundation ground and way of our believing and so becoming an holy habitation and people for God Jesus Christ the main matter and subject treated of in the Gospel is in that sense holy to God chosen by him separated and set apart for him to be his salvation to the ends of the earth the Lamb of God to take away the sins of the world his righteous Servant in whose hand his pleasure shall prosper his Elect in whom his Soul delighteth who hath sanctified himself and given up himself to him to do his will in all things to be his Prophet to declare his mind and bring forth judgment to the Gentiles and light to the people to be his High-Priest as it is said The Lord hath sworn and will not repent Thou art a Priest to me for ever after the order of Melchisedeck Psal 110 3 4. to make atonement for the sins of the people offer up their gifts and sacrifices and make intercession for all that come to God by him Heb. 2.17 and 5.1 and 7.25 and bless them in his Name Heb. 7.6 7. His King whom he hath set upon his holy hill of Sion Psal 2.6 7. being wholly holy unto God to do his pleasure in his presence for men and from him to and with men Rom. 6.10 his Foundation namely that he hath lay in Sion to be the foundation and corner-stone of his holy building an habitation for his Holiness and glory by vertue of whom it is that the whole building becomes an holy House to God and an habitation separated unto him to dwell in by his Spirit as Ephes 2.20 21. And so the Doctrine or Faith concerning him is holy separated and set apart for Gods use for drawing men into the knowledg and faith of Christ and so to himself by and through him and therefore it is called The power of God to salvation to every one that believes Rom. 1.16 The Medium that he made choice of for saving those that believe it and so through it believe in him 1 Cor. 1.21 so that in this respect too it is holy As also 3. In respect of the effect and fruit of it it makes holy those that receive it and are united with it and built upon it So Jesus Christ the main matter and subject of it the foundation properly laid in it and by it for men to believe in and be built on is not only holy in himself sinless and set apart for God but also is made of God holiness to us the cause of holiness to us He in and by vertue of whom we are holy to God 1 Cor. 1.30 He being the holy Temple and habitation of God makes us so too in being united with him He being the holy foundation makes all the building holy And so the Doctrine of the Apostles preached and published concerning him and received and held fast by these Believers was holy in respect of the effect and fruit of it in Believers who are said to be sanctified by the faith in Christ Jesus Acts 26.28 Sanctified or made holy through Gods Word which is the Truth John 17.17 and to be made clean through the Word spoken to them John 15.3 Sanctified and washed by the washing of water the Love Grace and Knowledge of God held forth in the Word that they might be presented a glorious Church not having spot or wrinkle or any such thing but that it might be holy and without blame or blemish Ephes 5.26 27. as also the holiness of the new man is therefore in Ephes 4.22 called according to the Greek 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 The holiness of truth because the effect or product of the Truth believed by men To this purpose are those sayings of David in Psal 119.9 11. Wherewith shall a young man cleanse his wayes By taking heed thereto according to thy Word And again I have hid thy Word in my heart that I might not sin against thee c. Yea 4. It is called the holy Faith to signifie the great care that God hath of it its acceptableness to him and his respect to and care of it as in that sense in Jer. 2.3 Israel was said to be holiness to the Lord being his people his peculiar portion he had an especial care over them to defend them so as that all that devoured them offended evil came or shall come upon them So is Christ holiness to the Lord very dear and delightful to him and therefore especially cared for and defended by him as in Psal 89.21 With him his right hand is established and his arm strengthens him so as the enemy shall not exact upon him nor the son of wickedness afflict him he will beat down his foes before his face and plague them that hate him Yea therefore they that believe not in him shall be condemned and perish and they shall be destroyed that will
Caution Look diligently least any man fail of the grace of God least any root of bitterness spring up and trouble you and thereby many be defiled least there be any fornicator or prophane person as Esau who for one morsel of meat sold his birth-right for ye know how afterward when he would have inherited the blessing he was rejected for he found no place of repentance though he sought it carefully with tears for ye are not come to Mount Sinai the Mount which might be touched and which burnt with fire c. but ye are come to Mount Sion the City of the living God c. See that ye refuse not him that speaketh for if they escaped not who refused him who spake on earth how shall we escape if we turn from him that speaks from heaven Heb. 12.15 16 17 18 22 25. Where the Apostle from the heavenliness and so by consequence the holiness and graciousness of the Gospel ministration warns us to take heed of all prophaneness and implyes the severity of Gods judgments against the prophaners of it and the turners of the Grace of God into wantonness The more the Grace of God is set before us in any Doctrine the more it teacheth us to deny ungodliness and worldly lusts and ingages to holiness in heart and life Now the Grace of God is most fully set forth in the Gospel as now since the ascention of Christ published to all Nations for the obedience of faith and therefore as it is the most gracious so upon that account the most holy faith but now where God bestows most grace he expects most holiness in return for it and therefore there he is most displeased with mens unholiness and ungraciousness especially when that that is given to produce holiness is made use of to incourage men to loosness and prophaneness The more holy any thing is the more severely the abuse of it is punished by him as might be seen in Gods punishing Belâ—â—shazzar's abuse of the consecrated Vessels of the Temple of God to drink and quaff in prophanely amongst his Queens and Concubines Dan. 5. therefore this being the most holy faith the abuses and prophanations of it shall be most severely punished The use of all which might be to provoke us to carefulness in keeping to and holding fast this faith not suffering it to be perverted or prophaned and especially to take heed of perverting and prophaning it our selves as we would avoid Gods sorest and severest judgments but receive it with all gladness and acceptation and wait upon it and upon God in it for his power to sanctifie us and make us holy and as God is working in it to that purpose both to will and to do so work we out what God works in us and so our own salvation with fear and trembling least we should receive his Grace in vain withhold it in unrighteousness or turn it into wantonness But I pass on to the next particular to be inquired into viz. 4. What that is that is to be built upon or with this most holy faith and that is your selves 1. Not the faith it self that is not to be built up for that is already perfect and pure most holy it cannot be mended or made better every addition to it or alteration of it mars it and prophanes it that therefore is to be believed received and let abide as it is laid of God for us both in the things done to the person of Christ and in the Doctrine and declaration of Christ by the Apostles and Prophets that 's the foundation of the building and it is perfectly laid of God already Isai 28.16 1 Cor. 3.11 that is not to be built up but to be built upon to be held fast as most absolute and compleat nothing therein to be removed or altered that stands firm and sure and hath this seal The Lord knoweth thâ—se that are his the Lord like owns and approves it highly as it is his which he would not do if it was defective and imperfect he found fault with the first Covenant Priesthood Sacrifices c. upon the account of their defectiveness for making perfect the worshippers and therefore cast them by in due time took them away to bring in this New Testament the most holy Faith the most perfect and acceptable Sacrifices and most perfect Priest To whom he hath therefore sworn and will not repent and alter it as he did the former Priesthood and Law Thou arâ— a Priest to me for ever after the order of Melchisedeck Heb. 7.11 12 19 21 and 8 7 8 9 13. and 10.9 All is compleat and most holy here in this faith that therefore is not the thing he exhorts them to build or add to as the false Teachers were wont to do or pretend to do to make the Doctrine taught by the Apostles more full and perfect by their additions by which they corrupted it But letting that lye as God had laid it the exhorts them to build up 2. Themselves their persons hearts hopes c. therein implying 1. That Believers are Gods building as the Apostle calls them in 1 Cor. 3.9 Those that receive this most holy Faith they are thereby united with Christ the precious sure foundation and corner-stone and so as living or lively stones inlivened by that living Stone Christ to whom they are come They grow up into an holy spiritual house an holy Temple and habitation for God by his Spirit Yea as Christ is both the House and Temple of God himself For in him dwells all the fulness of the Godhead bodily and the foundation also of the House or Church of God so every Believer is both as the Temple of God by vertue of Christ in whom he is yea their body is the Temple of the Holy Ghost and is also a stone in the great Temple or spiritual building and as God dwelt of old in his Temple of old at Jerusalem between the Cherubims of glory not as to the comprehension of his Essence or Glory but as to a signal and more especial manifestation of his Power and Presence so God dwells in his Church and People that are in Christ by way not of the comprehension of his Essence but manifestation of his gracious presence and dispensation of his blessings Christ as held forth in the Apostles Doctrine is the only foundation of this building He is laid or built upon none of them or their vertues works or doings but they are all brought to and built upon him by the holy Spirit And therefore also they ought carefully to cleave to Christ as their only Foundation their Upholder and Sanctifier by vertue of whose firmness and infinite strength and fixedness all they that abide or continue upon or in the faith of him are firm and strong also yea As Mount Sion that can never be removed but standeth fast for ever Psal 125.1 2. and by vertue of his holiness and sanctity being Gods holy foundation they are holy too to God
as an holy Temple or building and therefore ought also to be clean and chast and holy in all things to him as he that hath appointed it for his habitation and dwells therein is holy 2. In that the Believers are the matter to be built upon that most holy Faith it is implyed too that they yet are imperfect and not compleat in themselves or in their conformity to Christ and attainments from Christ their faith is most holy no blemish or imperfection or defect in that but they that are in or upon it are not so they need to be builded up and perfected they may yea it s but meet and right that they should acknowledge their own shortness in holiness or goodness that so they may attend to grow in Grace and in the knowledge of our Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ but they may not fault the faith once delivered to the Saints or accuse it of want or defect or bear that it be faulted added to or altered they are to let that alone as it is in that respect but attend that they themselves may be added to in their believing living righteously godlily and soberly in this present evil world though they be compleat in Christ their Head Root and Foundation Col. 2.10 yet in their attainments of the knowledge of Christ and conformity to him in holiness and happiness they have not yet attained neither are already perfect as the Apostle sayes of himself Philip. 3.14 15. They see but darkly and as in a glass not so as they are seen they know but in part and prophecy but in part that that is perfect in those respects is not yet come but to be waited for by them 1 Cor. 13.9 11. they may yet and ought to add in their faith vertue and in vertue knowledg and in knowledge temperance and in temperance patience and in patience godliness and in godliness brotherly kindness and in brotherly kindness charity 2 Peter 1.5.6 7. It will do us no hurt to acknowledge our own shortness and imperfection in our attainments so we also acknowledge the fulness and perfection of the most holy faith for perfecting us and bringing us to the inheritance yea as it is dangerous for Believers and leads to their destruction to admit an imperfection and defect in the faith for that will lay them open to impostures to corrupt them therefrom so not to acknowledge their own imperfection and defect to say they have no sin or have attained all fulness of knowledge and goodness or with the Church of Laodicea that They are rich and increased with goods and need nothing is very dangerous and destructive to them also laying them open to pride and puffings up in themselves as also to slothfulness covetousness and security and by that means to sail of the Grace of God and to be deluded and carried captive of Satan to their own destruction It implyes further 3. That their perfection in conformity to Christ and attainments by Christ is to be sought for in abiding in their most holy Faith and so by and from it as it signifies the object or foundation of it which is Christ and by and through the the faith as it signifies the Doctrine holding forth Christ They are not to seek further growth and perfection by going away from that to some other doctrine as better fitted for that purpose for then should not this be the most holy faith but that other doctrine should be more holy than this nor should they build up themselves thereon but besides this as quitting and forsaking this that they might be built up or build up themselves on some other thing but here they are to continue holding fast that which they have heard and received And to that purpose it is that the Apostle being about to leave the Elders of Ephesus and the Churches thereabout commits them to God and to the word of his Grace as able to build them up and to give them the inheritance Act. 20 32. and tells the Corinths that they should be saved in keeping in memory what they had received in the Gospel preached by him from the beginning or in the first things of it 1 Cor. 15.1 2 3. and 1.22 23. So the Apostle John too 1 John 2.24 25. for this doctrine is not like that of the Law or first Testament that made nothing perfect but perfection is herein and herethrough to be attained so far as we be capable of attaining it here yea to the inheritance it self also it is onely Christ as herein set forth that doth bring men The Doctrine then or faith once delivered to the Saints is not at any time to be waved or altered by us but suffered to abide and to be abid in by us and on that Believers are to build up themselves who are yet in themselves imperfect stand in need of building It s the foundation laid for them that upholds them and bears them up from sinking all their faith hope stay comfort springs therefrom and stands thereupon but it self stands upon none of them nor is added to or made more holy by them yea they themselves as to their Spirits and spiritual conditions stand upon it are what they are as a Building for God from and by it and in union with it and besides that there is no standing for them or any man nothing to support relieve or comfort them against the accusations of the Law and sin and Sathan nothing else to secure them and keep them from perishing in the wrath to come no other Sacrifice for sins to be found but what this presents nor otherwise than as this presents and therefore no forgiveness justification or salvation but upon and according to this faith and doctrine All the blessing and fulness of God is here dwelling and sure to be met with by those that there seek and wait for him and nothing but lies and emptiness can any finde to uphold them if this be turned from No work or worth no prayers or tears or acts of a man can help him that hath rejected and is besides this foundation all the Building therefore is to be on this but then it s to be inquired 5. How the believer is to be built thereupon and how to build up himself and what that implies to 〈◊〉 we may say 1. The building themselves upon this is the firming themselves in the belief and acknowledgment of this most holy faith a growing more into it and in union with it more to believe it and discern and see into the truth fulness and abundance in it more to love it and adhere to it as having all things of worth and excellencie in it and as thence seeking and expecting them and then 2. The deriving vertue from it strength courage fortitude patience and so the divine vertues in it to an increase and augmentation in all holiness and conformity to Christ and so an ascending up or mounting up more heaven-ward and God◠ward in
affections to him and hope and conâ—dence in him and so a growth in fitness for his service and for the injoyment of the promised inheritance and so for his inhabiting and dwelling in us and with us by his Holy Spirit and filling us with his Glory and glorious vertues 3. Yea and as the believers are a society amongst themselves in union with Christ and with one another by vertue of the common faith and salvation so this building up themselves or their being built up hath in it a joynt growth in the knowledge and faith of Christ and of the Grace of God in Christ and firmness in their adherence to Christ and dependance on him and in love one to another and so a growth in union and affection one with another and by that which every joint supplies from the head and every stone from the foundation or Holy Faith a growth up into God into the knowledge and love of him confidence in him conformity to him fitness for fellowship with him and the inhabitation of him by his Spirit in them and the injoyment of his Glory with and amongst them And all through and by vertue of the foundation and corner stone Jesus Christ in whom all the building fitly compacted and framed together groweth up into an holy Temple in the Lord for an habitation of God by or in his Spirit Ephes 2.21 22. To which we may add also 4. The multiplying themselves by the dâ—yly addition of others from the world into unity of faith and confession with them for as there is an â—ward increase and growth of every particular believer in faith love holiness c. in this building up and a joynt inward encrease of the whole Society by that which is imparted amongst themselves to each other in the same heavenly virtues and attainments so there is also an external and outward growth as to number and greatness of the society while others are dayly added to them which makes the House of God grow larger in its latitude it hath in the world a way of growth that believers have heartily desired after and rejoyced in when they have obtained it a blessing included in the blessing of Abraham wherein God promised to multiply and increase him and his seed Heb. 6.14 not only as his natural but also as to his spiritual seed the great thing that the Apostle Paul endeavored not pleasing himself but becoming all things to all men and pleasing them in all things not seeking his own profit but the profit of many that might be saved 1 Cor. 10.13 And it was the thing that David was better pleas'd with more rejoyc'd in to hear many say who will shew us good Lord lift up the light of thy countenance upon us than if he had seen them prosper in the world in their wealth and riches for thereupon he adds Thou hast put more joy and gladness into my heart namely for or concerning those that said as above than when their corn and their wine increased Psal 4.6 7. and therefore it may well be included in this edifying themselves here exhorted to viz. the endeavouring to adde and increase the number of believers by new conversions of others to the faith to partake with them in the Grace of God as well as to increase and further themselves and one another in their inward growth upon the faith especially too seeing that the exercise of our selves in charity to seek the conversion and salvation of others is a way in which God will add his blessing to and inlarge our selves as it is said The liberal Soul shall be made fat and he that watereth shall be watered also himself Pro. 11.25 which as well respects the helpfulness of others spiritual instruction as by distribution of worldly goods for the relief of mens outward necessities 6. Now in that it is said Build ye up your selves on your most holy faith and not only passively being built up upon it it is further signified both 1. That as the believers are not yet perfect or most holy as the foundation or faith is so their growth up to perfection is gradual not all at once attained or in a moment but by degrees in which they may be daily and always growing more and more for this counsel or exhortation is for a continued usefulness a business that they are always to look upon as their business till they be brought to the actual possession of eternal life or so long as they live here amongst men in the world There is in this growth up into an holy Temple for the Lord a going on from strength to strength Psal 84.7 8. a being changed into the image of the Lord from Glory to Glory as by his Spirit 2 Cor. 3.18 so that believers may not at any time say we are edified built up so fully already that we can build up our selves or be built up no further though they are to be at a stay in respect of their foundation the holy faith they are not to straggle from that yet as to their knowledge of it and faith in it and attainments from it they may say as the Apostle Paul of himself that they have not yet attained while here neither are already perfect but this thing they do forgetting the things that are behinde the things they have let go for Christ they press on forward toward the mark for the prize of the high calling of God in Christ Jesus and to press forward still every day more and more that they may apprehend that for which they are also apprehended of Christ Jesus Philip. 3.12 13 14. and so as the Apostle says to the Thessalonians edifie themselves still even as they do 1 Thess 5.11 they did edifie one another and yet he exhorts them still to do so there is ground for it there is need of it for as our Saviour says So is the Kingdome of God the Grace of God in mens Souls in respect of the efficacie of it there as when a man casts seed upon the earth and he sleeps and wakes night and day and the seed grows up and is increased no man knows how for the Earth of its own accord brings forth fruit first the blade and than the eare and than the full Corn in the eare c. Mark 4.26 27 that is the growth of the Grace of God in a man or of a man in that Grace is secretly indiscernably and leasurely not altogether and at once but by divers steps and degrees so that neither is any man to be discouraged if he do not sensibly feel or perceive his growth in Grace or that others so grow but to go on edifying and furthering himself and others therein in time their profiting will appear to all men Nor are they to put a stop to their standing in the earth the Holy faith or to their growth therein but still go on and abide riping and building and building up themselves till the Husbandman when he sees
his being power goodness c. 5. To incite us to a more love and thankfulness to him as we have more acquaintance and familiarity with him and experience of his kindness to us and so also to forgive and doe good to one another as knowing that we do often need and receive forgiveness from him and manifold benefits and favours upon our asking yea oft-times above what we either ask or think 6. To provoke us to more humble and lowly demeanour of our selves before him and towards one another while we are always as beggars acknowledging our own wants and weaknesses and insufficiencie of our selves and our dependance for all good things upon him and have often experience of the distempers of our own hearts occasion of confessing and bewailing them that we might not bear up our selves as Lords that need to be beholding to God in nothing 7. That we might have more proof and experience of the vertuousness of Christs Sacrifice and Mediation for us in making our prayers acceptable and procuring Grace and blessing for us and gracious answers to us for these and the like reasons God will be sought unto by us which was the third thing implied in that phrase 4. Here is also further implied and signified to us that of and by our selves though we have need to pray to God continually yet we know not how to pray as we ought but are apt to offend and goe wrong therein to vent forth our passions or our corrupt and carnal desires and affections ambition pride revenge covetousness distrustfulness murmurings or the like and therefore need the directions and helpfulness of another wiser and holier than our selves even the Holy Ghost the breath and Spirit of God to infuse light and truth into us and direct and guide us thereby and frame our hearts aright therein that we may pray acceptably to God by Jesus Christ our Lord and noâ— loose our labour in praying or procure a curse to our selves in stead of a blessing 5. That God hath not left us nor doth leave us unto our own wisdom parts and abilities to guide us in our prayers and frame our prayers and desires for us nor yet leave us to prescribed formes and external directions and impositions of others to supply our weaknesses and inabilities to pray but gives his holy Spirit to those that believe in him and obey him to help them in their prayers to him that they may offer up spiritual Sacrifices in him acceptable to God by Jesus Christ Act. 5.31 32. Joh. 7.37 38. Rom. 8.26 27. 1 Pet. 2.5 which Holy Spirit being in and with God in Christ and proceeding thence is acquainted with the minde of God Rom. 8 26 27. 1 Cor. 2.10 and discovers to the believer what the minde and will of God is in those things that concern him to pray for so far at least as to direct to pray acceptably thereabout to him he being a Spirit of wisdom and Revelation in the knowledge of Christ Ephes 1.17 18. and frames the heart according to the minde and will of God in praying and begets longing desires and groans that cannot be uttered in them So that he that hath blessings to bestow on us and hath revealed it to be his mind that we should seek them of him and hath opened a way for us in and by his Son for approaching to him and pouring out our hearts before him pitying our ignorances and inabilities hath provided promised and faithfully affords his own holy Spirit in the teachings operations and efficacie of it to inable us to pray to him in that way and for those things that he hath prepared for us and set before us and for such spiritual Sacrifices or prayers Christ is appointed also the High-Priest to take away the iniquities that cleave to them as there is in them any thing of our ignorance error and mistake and to make them acceptable to him 1 Pet. 2.5 6. That God having done all this for us and affording such help to us as is suitable to his holiness and our needs requires of us not to neglect this his Grace not to worship in the oldness of the Letter in form and fashion and outside onely or in our own wit parts and wills c. but in Spirit and truth in all things watching unto and in prayer that we pray in and according to the light and direction that he gives us in the Gospel asking onely such things and in such way and manner as the Gospel instructs us and in such a frame of Spirit as the Holy Ghost therein begets and nourishes in us in attending to the Grace of Christ as therein set before us and keeping that which is the ministration of the holy Spirit the very air as it were in which it breaths in our hearts and mindes to direct and lead us They therefore do evilly that neglect the Gospel and the holy Ghost as breathing therethrough in us and take up other ways and helps in stead thereof and especially such as would tie up men to other helps as forms and impositions of words frames as if God gave not his holy Spirit now to help his servants And it may be observed that since the giving of the holy Spirit to those that believe in Christ we finde no formes of prayer invented proposed or imposed by Christ or his Apostles upon men as there were before he was given so to them and received by them Though in case of the ignorance and insufficiencie of the Ministry which yet the Bishops ought not to suffer but provide and put in such as are sufficient and well qualified according to those rules in 1 Tim. 3. and Tit. 1 or to prevent mens disorderly prayings that some good and unexceptionable forms may be prescribed for publike Assemblies I do not utterly deny that in Matth. 6. â— upon some such accounts it may seem that Christ prescribed 7. That possibly men may yea believers also and too often doe neglect the help of the Holy Spirit yea and may too often neglect prayer it self restraining prayer before God and not pouring out their hearts therein to him but seek by other means to defend and keep themselves against the assaults of enemies and that if they do pray yet they may not pray in the holy Ghost in what light and instruction he gives them in and by the Doctrine of Christ and in his operations therethrough in their hearts and so in such faith love charity humility resignation of themselves to the will of God earnestness and for vencie as becomes them and as the Grace of God and his Gospel instructs to and his holy Spirit therethrough believed and minded uses to work in men and frame their hearts to but may possibly as too often they doe rest in some forms or if not so yet pray in their own selfish ignorant carnal spirit asking those things that suite their wills and humours and lusts their own advancement glory ease c
Spirit instructs and moves them they do surely receive it of God as Christ hath promised saying Whatsoever ye ask the Father in my name I will do it that the Father may be glorified in the Son If ye shall ask any thing in my name I will do it John 14.13 14. and again If ye abide in me and my words abide in you ask what ye will it shall be done to you John 15.7 and again Verily verily I say unto you whatsoever ye ask the Father in my name he will give it you Ask and ye shall receive that your joy may be full John 16.23 24. And thus the Apostle Paul implies of the prayers of the faithful put forth in the Spirit of God when he speaking of the Spirit it self making Intercession for us with groanings which cannot be uttered adds And he that searcheth the hearts knoweth which may signifie also approveth what is the mind of the Spirit because he maketh Intercession for us according to the will of God Rom. 8.26 27. Now this is one main thing that the Holy Spirit instructs and leads such as be led by him in their prayers to desire and pray for That they may be more confirmed rooted and built up on their most holy Faith and â—o be preserved in the Grace of Christ and love of God and that such Spiritual mercies and blessings may be extended to them as may further them therein So that the praying in the Holy Ghost as it springs from the being on the most holy Faith or rather from that faith abiding iâ— us and exercising the heart thereto wherein the love of God is certainly enjoyed So it also obtains of God through Christ a further rootedness therein and growing up thereon and so by consequence an abiding in yea an encrease of this grace and favour of God upon them 3. Thereby also is obtained of God through Christ power and grace to withstand the assaults of Satan and deceits of all his Instruments and Engines imployed by him to draw men out of the most holy Faith and so out from the grace and love of God toward them and therefore as we see before this praying with all prayer and supplication in the Spirit is mentioned as the last piece of the whole Armour commended to us by the Apostle as of main use or force to preserve us in the evil day or time of temptation from being overcome of Satan and turned aside from the truth of Christ and love of God Ephes 6.18 according to that of David in Psal 18.3 I will call upon the Lord who is worthy to be praised so shall I be saved from mine enemies and the practices and experiences of the servants of God often mentioned in the Scriptures as Psal 22.4 5 24. 34.3 4 5. for the effectual fervent prayer of a righteous man avails much with God the God that hath stiled himself a God hearing prayers both for himself and others Let no man therefore as also Bernard saith despise prayer for if it be in faith and in the Holy Ghost it is heard and recorded in heaven as soon as if not before it proceed out of thy mouth here And one of these two things saith he we may assuredly expect namely either â—â—at God will give us what we we ask or what he knows to be better for us and more profitable than what we ask Vse What we have considered about these means of keeping our selves in the love of God viz. The building up our selves on the most holy faith and praying in the Holy Ghost might be diversly useful I shall onely hint at some uses of it 1. It may reprove and tax the too great sloathfulness and negligence found with us and many Believers in every place in not minding to build up our selves on our most holy faith and to that purpose to exercise our selves to the mindfulness of that faith and oft speaking one to another and thinking on the Name and Doctrine of God exhorting and furthering the faith of one another therein and conformity thereto There is too much minding other things mean time in us the present world our own names honors ease lusts wills c. and too great aptness to let those things as noxious roots spring up and â—hoak the good seed in us so as that it brings not forth in us fruit to perfection Thence a too great aptness to forsake the assembly of our selves unto such purposes as to exhort and edifie our selves a fault reproved Heb. 10.25 as also the abuse of such liberties to assemble together to edifie our selves which is too general or common when Believers coming together come not for the better and for edification or do not so improve their assemblings but rather for hearing and telling news if not which is worse for contention and strife and what tends to destruction A fault reproved 1 Cor. 11.17 18. 2. In not stirring up our selves to call upon Godâ— and be much in prayer to him both in private for our selves and others and publickly or altogether as was practised by the Apostles and Believers Acts 1.13 14. 2.41 6.4 12.5 12. 13.2 There is too great an hanging down of the hands every where among Believers instead of a diligent lifting up pure hands in the name of the Lord without wrath and doubting as we are exhorted 1 Tim. 2 8. a fault reproved Isa 64.7 There is none that calleth upon thy name or that stirreth up himself to take hold on thee and bewailed by Daniel Chap 9.13 All this evil is come upon us as we may see and say much evil is come upon us yet made we not our prayer before the Lord our God that we might turn from our iniquities and understand the truth Too great a fault in restraining prayer are we guilty of and that also much hinders our edification and profiting in the most holy faith and deprives of much experience of the love of God and lays us open to vanity and many assaults and snares of sin and Satan to the procuring wrath and displeasure from God upon us 3. It may also reprove and fault the formality and faultiness of our prayings and exercises of our selves in our assemblings together as praying here may be put for all exercises of seeking the Lord as praying and seeking him be put together Zech. 8.21 22. that we pray so much in our own spirits and so little in the Holy Spirit so much with an unholy frame and temper of spirit as holding fast iniquity corruption and deceit and refusing to return from it taking the name of God in vain or seeking perishing meat to our selves in our pretensions to follow after Christ as seeking therein a name and honor or followers to our selves or the colouring over our love of vanity with an appearance of piety or thinking to bribe Gods justice and our own consciences for our lusts and iniquities by multiplying prayers and professions or praying out of strife vain-glory
by whom they come the Lord preserve and keep us that we be not of them in any thing but that in all our carriages and conversations we may be blameless and harmless the children of God in the midst of those amongst whom he sets us building to our selves on our most holy faith praying in the holy Ghost Vse 2. It may exhort and provoke us to take this course to keep our selves in the love and Grace of God where we are in it to build up our selves as hath been before shewed on our most holy faith praying in the holy Ghost to which what hath been noted affords both motive and incouragement 1 Motive From the consideration of the end of so building up our selves and the fruit and consequents of it 1. The end is that we may be habitations for God by his Spirit for that 's the end as hath been noted of Gods building and therefore the end both of his having laid such a foundation as the most holy Faith to be built upon and of his calling drawing and as it were laying the Souls of men to and upon it and of his bidding us to builâ— up one another and giving gifts and advantages to those purposes It is that we being built up he might dwell in us by his holy Spirit Ephes 2.21 22. and so fill us with his presence blessing and Glory as he did the Temple of old a Type hereof and the more we grow up into and are built up upon Christ the more he will inhabit and dwell in and with us by his Spirit and afford us his presence 2. A second and further end is our being kept in the love of God under his special care and protection for as God said of old of the Temple built up and dedicated to him the like will he say of and perform toward this his spiritual building yea and so much the more and the rather by how much he being a Spirit is more delighted in spiritual things than in bodily and carnal as that old Temple was whereas his people built upon Christ are a spiritual house 1 Pet. 2.5 with John 4.24 and by how much the truth and substance is beyond the type and figure or shadow Now he said of that material Temple in 2 Chron. 7.16 Now have I chosen and sanctified this house that my Name may be there for ever and mine eyes and my heart shall be there perpetually and then 3. The fruits and consequents hereof must needs be excellent and glorious such as may move us to minde this work and business of self edification with cheerfulness and diligence as 1. Gods dwelling and delighting in a people will be their safety and defence so as no harm or mischief shall befal them from all that are enemies to them and seek to harm them for he is mighty to save and will surely be as good or better an inhabitant of his house than other men are or can be of theirs He will put forth his power and greatness for the defence of it thence that in Isai 12.6 Cry out and shout thou inhabitant of Sion for great is the Holy One in the midst of thee and that in Zeph. 3.14 15 16 17. Sing O Daughter of Sion shout O Israel be glad and rejoyce with all thy heart O Daughter of Jerusalem the Lord hath taken away thy Judgement he hath cast out thine enemy The King of Israel even the Lord is in the midst of thee thou shalt not see evil any more In that day it shall be said to Jerusalem fear thou not and to Zion let not thine hand be sâ—ack The Lord thy God in the midst of thee is mighty he will save he will rejoyce over thee with joy c. It is true that those things are spoken of the Church and people of God when they shall be fully built up and gloriously inhabited of God in the last times or in the Kingdom of his Glory but yet there is a measure of it a first fruits now to be met within Gods dwelling by his Spirit in his people built up in a measure for him whence the like rejoycings or gloryings in his presence with his people now in the days of trial or rejoycings neare of him at least thereto in Psal 46.1.6 God is our refuge and strength a very present help in trouble therefore will we not fear though the earth be removed and though the mountains be carried into the midst of the Seas though the waves thereof roar c. and then in vers 4 5. shewing the ground of this fearlesness he adds There is a River the streams whereof make glad the City of God the holy place of the Tabernacles of the most High God is in the midst of her she shall not be moved God shall help her and that right early and as a proof of his helpfulness he adds The Heathen raged the Kingdoms were moved he uttered his voice the earth melted The Lord of Hosts is with us the God of Jacob is our refuge Selah And Psal 48.3 God is known in her Palaces for a refuge speaking of Gods Church as his City as Gods people are called in the Scripture both his House and City as Ephes 2.19 20 21 22. His presence in his House and City is their safety nothing can harm them unless their defilements of his House or of their Hearts and Societies causing him to abhor and loath them as in the Type Psal 78.58 59 60 61 c. 2. Gods dwelling with and in his people as his house and delighting in them will afford them all fulness of supply and satisfaction his House and houshold for they are both Ephes 2.19 20. shall want nothing good and needful for them for their maintenance upholding and abundant rejoycing Whence David preferred the being in any the lowest place in Gods house though but at the threshold before the most settled dwelling he might have in the most sumptuous Palaces of the wicked called by him to signifie the flittingness of them the Tents of the ungodly because the Lord God is a Sun and shield and will give Grace and Glory and withhold no good thing from them that walk uprightly with him Thence also partly it is that his City or dwelling place is called upon so much to rejoyce for his presence with it in the places above cited He makes a feast in his house and satisfactions to their desires 9.1 2 3. Psal 36.8 9 10. He will fill his house with all all materials and provisions good for it and 3. He will adorn and beautifiâ— his habitation that he loves as well as fill and satisfie those particular Souls that are therein He will beautifie the place of his Sanctuary and make the place of his feet glorious Isa 60.13 He will beautifie the meek with his Salvation because he takes pleasure in them Psal 149.4 He will have his House and habitation glorious answerable in some sort to his own glory and greatness that